Contemplating Happiness While Listening to Janet Jackson

It’s all for you         a sparked ember       against the wayward cheek.

        The middle of my chest aches              in the evening like a great song,

like a wild vine placed through all this tempo,             stretched across the soft

candle of thin breath. Me, being me, I leap forward at the sound of purposeful ecstasy.

I dream all the bubbles loose in some warm bath water      surrounding by candles

        maybe some other naked man—

I am contemplating what it means to light joy up, being aware of its complications:

              like how sometimes the brain stops its flight.

I am contemplating the erasure of wounds,    like how they are never erased.

What bruise is coming to the surface?        How I like to rub the tender spot to feel aching.

The way joy goes it sparks, it ignites.          The way love goes,     it may follow after joy.