She lets me know
I’m just a man
Prone to taking
Myself too seriously
And she smiles
Something in my chest
Realises it is free to
Breathe
She sinks into
My flesh
Like heat
Moving in such a way
I picture her naked
This capacity
For life
Like God is in the room
When I kiss her
But she’s a memento mori
And a celebration
Not on a pedestal
Or pandered to
But I tell her
Through my actions
How I feel
I love in
Actions
But setting course
Through rejection
And tumult
Swallow bitter wisdom
Turned to wisdom
In my veins
With you,
I’m exacting and
Some part of me
Treats you as a mistress
Passionate to the point
Where I leave you
Shaken
Gentle after and
Able to laugh at
Your loving tests and challenges
We see the darkness
In each other
And still bathe in the
Same light
I will steal kisses
Where I can
And pay attention when
My purpose allows
But apart from that
I will come as close
To breaking you
With love as your
Body allows
Beneath the actions,
The calm authority with which
I conduct myself,
The supple confidence
Which comes from being
Unencumbered by restlessness
Some part of me reveals itself
Rough hands made delicate
Deep, gruff voice softened
Into chuckles
Trained but not domesticated
My words are cool sips
Smoothing out into bursts of warmth
And each time I enter the room,
It becomes the first time,
And a rush of adolescence
Returns
Like the building of static
Before a storm
And you dance in the rain of my attention
The ribald peals of laughter
Ringing like church bells
And this, the closest
I’ve come to knowing faith
Makes me feel
As close to salvation
As I’m likely
To
Get
We can still
Know where everything
Everyone is
And be lost
Home isn’t somewhere
You’d have receive mail
Just as you won’t always find
God in the church
And my wildness has known
The shadows of bars
Falling asleep in captivity
But home is a person
As much as a place
And I fall into
Space with you
Kisses like
Twinkling lights
Hands as pilgrims
Slip past the gates
Of your clothes
Warm from sleep
And set them to
Worship
I’ll take you
Down
Sweet and low
Stripped down
To skin
Going
Coming until we
Don’t know which way
Is up
Which way is down
Held back
But never by
What I’ve been feeling
Sustained by the thought of you
And all the stars look like you
Tonight
As we spend but not waste
The time we have
And sometimes I am
Clumsy with the depth
Of feeling
But I have a grace
Lost down the side of my life
But found
It makes me glow
Like treasure
It’s a long way down
To fall without
Within
Into the abyss
Stained with self deception
And the fear plays its rhythms
On your bones
But this is where
The gods and their
Champions wait
And you stare
Long enough to see
The threshold
Cross it
It will feel like death
Until it doesn’t
But here
She comes to you
Sees you wearing the
Marks of father
And in surrendering,
Finds her own victory
With the surety
She finds
Her
Victor.
Swimming through
Oceans of beauty,
Febrile youth
Considered couture
Cosmetics as masterpieces
Perfect and inconstant
As pavement art
Wired to each wave and current
But you,
In absence
Or presence
Make me blind
Blithe to them all
Even as they smile
Simmer for my words
But you draw me down
Until my lungs
Are full with you
But I breathe deep
And feel the strength
Flow through my veins.
