Hermit Crab Hermetism

There’s something in your sleeping breath
that reminds me of a hermit crab gathering
its courage to find a home under the smother
of another night to skitter along the powdery
sand of my skin, managing purchase at last
in my dimpled navel; it is my girlish gasp
that wakes you into encouragement but not
enough bravery to do more than brush against
the silken hammering of my heart, never ling-
ering long before fleeing to a shell; you seem
to have forgotten the ordeal of its outgrowing.

bam