You could feel the sky
like a grey comforter that wrapped your fever dream
in a film of sweat and snarled sensation,
or like your uncle's skin cast pallid by the nightlight.

You could feel strangers' eyes
picking out the lesions at the back of your neck
where you'd scratched the pimples raw
because they were imperfections.

You could feel the weave of my jeans,
the heat of my breath,
and my uneven nails at the roots of your hair,
but not the tender turn my words had taken.

You could feel the sky,
the day I asked you, "why?"

"Because I'm so sick of being touched."

You Could Feel the Sky is the name of a song by the band Boards of Canada. This poem was composed around that phrase.