In the Tasting

I press myself against you 
as if I could fold myself 
inside your being, the closest 
touch an angel's wing 
away, the softness of 
feathers, your sweet breath -

I press myself against you 
as if skin could subside 
to the pressure, dissolve 
over arm and hand, 
a running gift of you 
I can drink in absorption -

I press myself against you
with a gift of light
from my heart, my eyes, our small
haloes ringing gold in the
gloom, we fly imperceptibly
our world's room -

I press against your liveliness 
the muscular days, energetic 
limbs full of harness and 
jingling, your going causes 
waves in the air, one minute 
gone, one minute here -

I touch my lips to yours, 
transference of graces 
breathes in us, our fingers 
locked but our eyes fastened 
on different scenes, the sea's 
waves on our shore, cleansings -

I press my weight as if I could 
become all you are, dark, secret 
and male, take on  
your animate eagerness, 
the sparkling dust that makes us 
human as we stand, and live -

I press our belief to me, the 
crystal of our love, as if I can 
divine the depths of contact, 
dive beneath all surfaceness 
to grasp the prize on our sea's 
floor and hold it to me -

The chest full of gold I
finger and count and
hoard, that I spend on you
on our words and silence
and time lingering - the slow taste
of you on my tongue.

previous poem