the sky’s sparkling with fractured light
the champagne has bubbled our heads and
carried us away and
i’m in your dress because
it looked silky like
the underside of your wrist.

i confess, however, that the dress is a compromise
because my eyes are lingering on the
smudge of your lipstick but
i’m contenting myself with your
second-hand warmth, seams tugging
at my shoulders while you tug at my cap where
it’s holding your hair back from your face.

we’ve swapped shoes too—
my sneakers for your heels to save
your aching feet and i regret it as
they pinch my toes like crab claws
but i love the unfamiliar tapping beat of
my steps on the pavement and
i can’t stop dancing to it so i’ve
memorised the song and i think
after a few more sips of champagne
maybe you should dance with me too?

our hands catch and your fingertips
caress the lines on my palm like
you’re reading my future, gentle and knowing
brave like you’re seeing us together
in the same way that i see us:
alight like sun streaming through
cathedral mosaic windows
leaning in like you want me
close enough to taste your
breath, the fizz of champagne
sweeter when it’s not from a flute

so it goes, falling entwining
kissing in the light of our guardian moon
with your lipstick laugh staining my mouth plum,
joy saturating my skin like a blush, petal-pretty. 

i want this to be remembered.
that i lived, once, as i wanted—

in a pretty dress tinted
the refraction of light through a
prism laughing out spectrums of colour and
spinning ‘til we’re stumbling with the
street still like a bated breath
my beating heart in my ears like it’s
pressed to a loudspeaker and you smiling into
my shoulder, teeth pressed to salted skin
like you can hear the way
i love you.