Two hour tones,
they wash onto the august air,
just parted,
they lap roof shoals
black thick with sleep
and up and cotton-footed
down the alleyways
the cats go jungle-hearted,
.streetlights print shades
with tree fists,
halo a couple swayed
on a stair
in a kiss
halfway up the night,
.up
to the falling reason's wheel
that cogs the stars
for the dreams' delight.
Gregg Lea
----------------
Poem for R.
.
Above, it's spring, I think,
and kisses bloom over every inch of skin,
each curve and lobe
our rosy lips moisten and shine.
.
Your body is a new country,
hidden landscape in cotton and chambray
that I want to travel with every vehicle I own:
hands, tongue, slide of silk.
.
Below, in the heat
and rush of wet, we're learning again
how summer moves through the deep canyons,
stirring grasses and honeying fruit.
.
How I love your trembling fingers,
given by the gentle ones
who taught you to crave taste and touch.
Under them, I am fully open.
.Kim Ly Bui-Burton
---------------------------------
TO THE BARN
Walking through the back yard
with my hand in yours,
cat following behind us,
dog watching through the door,
I'm wondering how I got there,
but so glad to be, and too,
I'm surprised at how I long to find
myself just kissing you.
.
Strolling through the back gate,
and with you to the barn
to check on the new litter
of kittens that were born,
I'm wondering if I should try to kiss you
in the shadows there,
overcome by the overwhelming urge
to touch your charcoal hair.
.
Trudging up the back porch steps
and into your cozy house,
headed for the livingroom
and straight to the well worn couch,
I suspect you understand
the way you make me feel inside,
as you wrap your arms around me
and press your lips to mine.
.
.
end
Tina Washburn
.
.
My love, my love, if you could come once more
From your high place,
I would not question you for heavenly lore,
But, silent, take the comfort of your face.
.
I would not ask you if those golden spheres
In love rejoice,
If only our stained star hath sin and tears,
But fill my famished hearing with your voice.
.
One touch of you were worth a thousand creeds.
My wound is numb
Through toil-pressed, but all night long it bleeds
In aching dreams, and still you cannot come.
.
.
end
Katharine Lee Bates
-------------------------
Climbing You
.
I want to understand the steep thing
that climbs ladders in your throat.
I can't make sense of you.
Everywhere I look you're there--
a vast landmark, a volcano
poking its head through the clouds,
Gulliver sprawled across Lilliput.
.
I climb into your eyes, looking.
The pupils are black painted stage flats.
They can be pulled down like window shades.
I switch on a light in your iris.
Your brain ticks like a bomb.
.
In your offhand, mocking way
you've invited me into your chest.
Inside: the blur that poses as your heart.
I'm supposed to go in with a torch
or maybe hot water bottles
& defrost it by hand
as one defrosts an old refrigerator.
It will shudder & sigh
(the icebox to the insomniac).
.
Oh there's nothing like love between us.
You're the mountain, I am climbing you.
If I fall, you won't be all to blame,
but you'll wait years maybe
for the next doomed expedition.
.
.
end
Erica Mann Jong
dark ripples
reach my toes
.
.
end
Arwyn Evans