For Jory to see - title poem for my IS <3

Etiology

With my hand laid against your cheek I feel
much bigger than I am and, for a moment,

it’s almost like I own you, like I hold a certain
power over you who are so delicate and just

for that reason I see you not as my friend
but as a conquest and I as conqueror, and

for a heartbeat I think that I might strike you
until you lean your face into my palm

and smile, perhaps seeing some early fire
flashing in my half-shut eyes, or the teeth

I have not quite bared, and then underneath
I feel all my fierceness crumble and I

become tame, like the first of wild dogs.