An older poem posted publicly now in memory of Whitney Houston and Adrienne Rich, but mostly to commemorate a special occasion…
Wet on wet,
Softness on softness,
Vines that entwine around
A common home,
A common sun,
Your touch on my skin
Goes direct
You yield
As I yield
Same eyes
Same hands
Same mouth,
While I ease myself inside you
You ease yourself inside me
And music comes to deep water
In each of our wells,
Tongue and lips all vibration
Receiving.
No need for dresses that flirt
Makeup that veils
Slimness that outlines
All is seen and known
Is its essential beauty,
We play roles
To share less, not more,
To step away from the all
That we are
Into the I’s of
Laughing and watching,
Free of the constraints
Of lace and rubber,
Cycling together,
Creating harmony
In our friction,
Creating luxury
In needs known so deeply.
We are no different than
Those who give seed and space—
We fire and extinguish
Naturally—
Yet we cannot kiss
In public
We cannot share who we are
With parents,
Cannot be seen as one
In the dual world
Of men and their ribs,
We face their fear
Of sex everywhere
Yet our faces
Are easy to ignore
As we hold on for warmth
Against the coldness of a world
That would rip us apart
At the first need for firmness,
Is it any wonder
We disappear
Into fabrics of curtains
That close?
Is it any wonder
We play as men
While we envy
Their power?
Their abuse is all we have
Control of,
All we allow ourselves:
Pickup trucks
Power tools
Flannel
Cats
Are they not all
Merely
Bold thumbs
At scared eyes
Unwilling to see?
Why is this need
We share
So strange
To others
How could we be
This way, is something
Missing
Or is there
Too much
And how could another be
Equally strange,
To accept oneness,
To long for the familiar,
For what can only begin
To become understood
But at least can be seen
In totality,
Fresh in nakedness
Without anything blocking
The path of love to love.
We know the only decision
That must be made
Is to be together,
Everything else is easy,
Instantaneously known.
Of course, there’s always
The danger, when two
Are so close,
Of hurting
So much more
Sharply
But of this we too are aware,
The continuous need
For touch
Always pure.
Through alchemy
Comes sincerity
Like of like
Brings the power of unlike
Differences magnified
The finest vapors
Small as they are
They can set one free
Send one throbbing
To her beloved
To melt into oneness
With a giggle,
Testing what it means
To be unconditional,
Learning that giving
And taking are one.
At the end of the myth
Of gender, another
Myth,
That it matters,
Is only for those
Who don’t see
How such love
Was a possibility.
The spark of perfect flames,
Of folds into loins
Blending without knowing,
Watching without following,
Hiding without realizing we are caught
In the net we, as spiders,
Devised
To, in seeing,
Get ever closer
To the center of love,
The fullness sought
By the emptiest mind.
The solution cannot exist
Without equations,
The infinite ways
And same result.
