We watch the gods cavort behind their cloudy condos
their neon laughter
blinking in the windows of this night

as we sit upon this wedding sheet
exchanging vows before a witness sea

I do not cut this sandy wedding cake
working instead
the crinkles from your shoulder and back

My hands
so well instructed
have forgotten the taste of other flesh
begin to learn you

while you tell me of the boyfriend
who will not find his young love
until you leave him

I am filled with philosophy
knowing he is full of pain

and I work your shoulder deeper
searching for the knot
you will undo with him

So we can take these threads of your life and mine
and begin to weave instead of tie

I do not want a single connection to you
even a hundred may not be enough

For I can feel the you beneath your skin
have tasted the sweet moisture around your lips
sensed the lively sex within your hips

But all this touching, tasting, feeling
is little compared to the lightning in your eyes

I see that you are more than a woman

Your loving me has apparently transformed you
into part god part girl
half flesh, half spirit

the way your kiss
has set my butterfly wings to beating
lit the light that leads to my heart
along a path that only you will travel

Earlier we stopped along our walk
to play within a magical park
practicing our climbing, jumping, sliding
within each other

A white cat with faint stripes
greeted us on the sidewalk
and we shared the sleek sensation of his fur
beneath our fingers

(And just now remembering him,
I realize that cat was Tucker
come to check the progress of our together)

The silent street corners of Vero
beg the dose of light
we inject with low-wattage hugs
each time we stop
while wending our neon path
not nearly as aimless as we appear

Driving to your grandparents house
we skirt the Indian River
follow the speed limit
in a scrupulous lack of haste

Your elegant legs curled
toward the passenger door
my arm corralling as much I can hold
gathering you to me
your head on my shoulder
your heart tattooing
indelible messages of you into my hand

We pass the house
you show me a small glen nestled by a stream

We crunch gravel
park facing the moon
and fly against each other

birds, bees, butterflies
all these creatures with wings
our lips impersonate

I feel my secret insides moving to the surface
tell you of the crystal and steel sword
the flash of ordinary grate
we used to heat our home
that other time
so many lives ago

The music of my heart
pulls water from my eyes

That battle, nearly won
the arrow that took me down
and away from you
until now

I was then and am now
the Lancelot you knew

This blade I raise
to defend the lives of others
I cannot use
to protect myself

That is why I am here,
you say
licking the river from my cheek

and now I cry
the tears that other death
prevented me
from bringing home

to you

I give them to you now
with this sacred pledge
written in sand and water and sky

All I am
is for you

THAT KIND OF WOMAN

Ask gentle questions with your loving
for there is a pain that arrives
through the dark I.V. of every good-bye
coursing in his veins

even as he reaches for her
half-crouched at the edge
of the ruby plush chair

his hands looking for the dials in her knuckles
tapping a don't worry code
within her clenched, unyielding tumblers

His beauty hovers between them
a dark balloon taking him away
leaving her on the earth of the red
still-winged chair

Words, she nonched through a sore opening
gazing at his fingers
washed and dried
forgotten of her lubricating love

Already?
she tattooed with her needling lips
at his forsworn oath of forever
as she turned away
gathered the shopping bag
containing the new underwear she was going to use
to seduce him one last time that evening

He lowers his head to hide
from the violent truth her sweetness
invoked within him

The treachery of remembered promises
he made to himself
about the echoing soft sighs
that crept through her ribs
each time she clenched her teeth
to fight the demon excitement
rising from the hell between her hips

Already, he said
listening to the slippery silt
of her nylon thighs
singing like crickets
as she disappears into the spring darkness
of her one and only good-bye

She was that kind of woman

FOR YOU
(1995)

I have sought your forgiveness
for my unrealized sins
in the eyes of a dozen women

Searched the hold of their hands
for your particular heat

Tasted of their lips
for your simmering breath

Slept tangled in the nests of their hair
hoping to awake snared by your morning embrace

But each opening of my eyes
holding of hands
sipping of breathy song

has instead taken me farther away
finding you loster still

Hidden somewhere in each golden spray of sunlight
marked by this calendar of alone

What honorable acts
I undertake on your behalf
even knowing you will never know

I do for the me
who still looks for you
everywhere
but where you really are

within yourself

Poetry Magazine