Nights

José Echeverría Vega

I'll be your sloppy seconds
If you kiss my gin-soaked lips
Under the auspice of the stars.

I'll hold you close the morning after
If you wrap your arms around my faults
Beneath the bucolic threading of my sheets. 

I'll bring you breakfast in bed 
If you can climb the fortress I built
To watch the sun take its morning gulp. 

I'll dry your hair after you shower
If you wash away what keeps me up at night
And assure me the only skeletons are the ones we feed. 

I'll make you espresso 
If you can grind down the chip on my shoulder
And smooth me over like a river humbling a rock. 

I'll roll you an afternoon blunt
If you lunge my anxiety in the air
And let it hang under the thick lazy cloud.

I'll make you dinner every night
If you gut me like a fish
And feed my insides to the worms. 

I'll hand-feed you chocolate-covered strawberries
If you can bottle your scent 
And let me breathe you in one oily drop at a time. 

I'll kiss you goodnight
If you plant a rose garden
And tell me you won't uproot.

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BrassTuna (b. 2000) is a Phoenix-based visual artist creating works centered around queer and Latine culture and how they overlap in the 21st century. Incorporating mask making, sculpting, sewing, and painting, BrassTuna immerses their photography style around the ideas of community building. Instagram: @brasstuna Website: www.brasstuna.com

José Echeverría Vega is a Phoenix native working in local government where he writes and manages grants. He earned his BA and MPA from ASU, and is currently enrolled in the creative writing certificate program  at Phoenix College. In his spare time he likes to read translated fiction, find specialty coffee, and watch the sunsets with his dog, Juni.