with the scent of coconuts in a flooded out valley
your mouth longing for the taste of fantastic stars
your mouth a river of new fruit your mouth covering everything
with the musk of figs and orange flowers in it
i was tangled in a vine of dead stars until i found you
i found release and yes you returned me to life
like the yellow and white beating wings of birds
jungle finches macaws and the brightest songbird i have ever seen
everywhere your mouth a galaxy of milk so i called you my milky way
everywhere the blood red road where many men have died
so i called you my passage through the world
i was a line of carpenters with pockets full of nails
i was a treefrog clinging to the side of a mahogany tree
i was one of many fuzzy caterpillars on a twig
we were all humping our backs up for a job
then you loved me and we walked together past innumerable parking meters
empty eyes in the city bums asked us for quarters
and you smiled at each one of them
for many months we made love
and then you slept long into the day
and when i awoke i was working in a factory again
and there had been no revolution
and each hour canceling the last one out
and you hid your face from me
but i could not forget the river of your mouth
and therefore i look for you in my dreams
and you are flowing through a desert
and you are flame and water to cactus flowers
therefore i look for you in dreams
and when i walk across the rock of your tongue
you are a joshua tree in a painted desert
when fat raindrops begin falling
and when i walk across the black pupils of your eyes
you are a scorpion and you hiss at me
i should not be surprised! everything in this world
is furious with everything else these days
but when night comes i still approach you
soberly and anyhow without hesitation
i am a man entering a cave of sleeping bats
every time we draw a breath in this world is the first time
i am the world i offer up my hands to you


�2007 by George Wallace