She said my skin is water
with currents of heat running through.
i conduct so much electricity that i glow
in bed beside sleeping you.
i have mastered the art of evaporation,
so he just thinks i'm melting into
his tattooed track-marked iron arms, when he
returns after weeks of kissing the undead-
i never spilled any of the things you've said-
but water can't be black
and vapor can't be blue.

She said mostly his hands hurt more often than not,
but everything just cycles, and i know this because
i am water, I fall and I rise;
he shakes it out of me again and again
while i wait for the rain, but I believe
a shapeshifter never really lives or dies.

She said nothing hurts quite like the light going away,
but i've always meant to watch the sunset with you anyway.
Tell him I glowed all the while he slept,
and I am still keeping all of his secrets I kept.
I am no longer electric, I was never made of water,
I am nobody's sister, lover, or daughter.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
Now my skin doesn't turn everybody else to rust.

(2004)