The illusory comfort of smallness finds me
draped over porcelain, knees cold on porcelain, porcelain
everywhere.
I am suddenly aware of how skin touches skin,
aware of how we might spend a lifetime shrinking to fit
cheek in hand, in love or lust or anger,
without ever knowing the difference.
We might spend all of our time searching the distance
between brittle bone and breast --
little though it may be -- smaller still, smaller,
to excavate the tendrils of veins visible beneath.
He grabs my wrist and situates me so we might
sit palm-to palm, dirty fingers curled to rest
over yellowed nails as if to say *look how small, smaller still*…