when he handles her it’s all tufts of hair and tongues. it’s all push and pull and scorching heat. everything burns around her. it comes close to violence if love were not involved, if anyone can love anyone any more these days. it becomes like clawing, like trying to get at something that’s beneath the surface, just this side of the vein. and he’s been trying to get at it, with his nails, with his teeth, because he wants to show it to her, he wants to say, this is what i see when i am in you, this is what i imagine you to be, this is you. isn’t it beautiful? how long has it been since you were beautiful?