Inked Love

Inked arms
curling like
incense smoke
around
my heart.

I pray in kind.

He traces
his map
on my skin

where he had
been

dark places
and lost

and how he
only had
a candle –

all this
he draws
onto me

as I breathe
his spiced smoke
and take all of him in

– all

until the prayer
is answered

and I read
his tale
over and over

inked
on my skin.