Unruled

Unruled

And while the music played

his closed eyes

danced, for as long as

his imagination

ruled

© 2016, José Coelho

Measurement Tools

Measurement Tools

Which are the best tools for taking measures?

Her waist is thinner

when I have my hands on it -

my hands are a tool

for caressing, for pressing, for mapping my understanding

of her waist.

At dawn, my eyes can trace the contour of her ankles

up to the ribs.

They too, are tools of measurement.

Once I spent hours holding a stranger's

hand. And we became two and a half.

My heart couldn't arrest the thing slipping

between our bodies, so it grew and shrunk, again and again

swelling as in a vessel.

It felt like crossing the Atlantic.

The heart is a measurement tool as well.

When I write I'm measuring

my thoughts and putting it down, through my fingers -

they
measure the decimals of everything.

© José Coelho, 2015