You write me love letters in font size 16 because you know I have the worst eyesight known to man

Cut my hair and let me play Solitaire

let me line out my Lanzerote playing cards on your Ikea bedspread

watch me win, watch me lose

clear up my hair clippings and keep them in a box

or throw them out or feed them to the dog.

Let us lie here in my parents’ bed on a Tuesday afternoon

and order Dominoes

Oh! Let’s play dominos

let me line them out on my parents’ bedspread

watch them fall.

Let us fall

onto the icy grass

like green stalagmites

behind my house

Christmas Eve 2002

and let me tell you

that I love you

that I’m excited about all the different things your face can do

that I dreamt about your mother.

Shave my legs in a white tiled bathroom

and look at them in the Cypriot sun

look at my legs shine, look at my skin shine, look at my hair shine

in the Cypriot sun

let me eat biscuits in your bed

and lets not worry about the crumbs.

Let me shave your head

in your kitchen one night

watch the shavings drop onto the clementines

lit by the fluorescent light.

write your number on my left hand

in blue biro and in the morning

you will be there, just digits now

bright and blue and truer than my veins underneath.

Cut my hair and tell me that I’m beautiful

and remind me why every boy I meet will fall

Down at my feet,

Protesting, on his knees,

On country roads or city streets,

That he loves me the most

That he will build towers of affection for me,

Tear his heart out and construct a ladder of love for me,

Climbs rungs of arteries, blood and veins just to shout from the top

That Yes! He does love me the most!