Thursday, June 17, 2010

ships in the night, trams in the evening (1998)


Note: first poem I ever read on stage, in December 1998


You sit across from me on the tram and return my smile
I watch you

Your eyes
No cliched comparison to limpid pools in the moonlight
Just a lovely pale blue
I study your hair
Watch it flow down past your shoulders
You reach up and tuck it back behind one delicate ear
And I see the elegant line of your jaw
And the exquisite curve of your neck
I watch the play of tendons beneath the pale skin as you turn to look around you
My mouth waters at the sight of the indentations along the line of your collar bones

Our eyes meet
Understanding passes
No words are spoken

I lean forward to kiss the depression at the base of your throat
The tip of my tongue, as if a herald to their arrival
Reaching you just before my lips
I bite gently on your neck, just beneath the jaw line
Breathe softly into your ear as I inhale your scent
And finally kiss your lips

Heat, moisture
A delicate pressure
We are not as starved animals at a fresh kill
Just two new lovers gently communicating desire

We reach your stop and you leave

You had not noticed me as you read your book
And I go home

Alone in my timidity

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