Premature

I think sometimes I miss it,

the peeling, liberty-stained walls

plump with stubbornness

and the precious ingenuity of boyhood,

the landscape of flesh in the

crib nestled side by side,

belly to back

But the picotee blue walls

tainted with blotches of dilated liberty,

served as a pillar,

for stacks of accolades and snapshots

of recollection

As the frayed carpet imprinted with

the wondrous shades of fēi xíngqí rustled,

under the tumulus of our

soft, soaking hoodies

Cue adolescence, the insatiable

yearning of a masculine bear–

beer bottles backing

up bathrooms to the brim,

He drank abundantly

leaving behind petals and picotee blue walls.