Aspirate (GMT +/-7)

Aspirate (GMT +/-7)

As we lay down to sleep
as we stand at the bluff holding hands
as we move together into night
as I wash the length of your back

somewhere the birds rise at the hunter’s guns
somewhere dew glitters at the feet of cattle
somewhere a young man drinks from a cup of tea
somewhere a woman keens, kneeling on cobblestone.

It must be so, the fireflies and the dragonflies
each to evening and morning take wing
the cicadas to their song, the frogs to their piping
the owl to the hollow oak

and a man and a woman will touch
and a man and a woman will turn away
and there will be loss between them
and there will be a tenderness.

In a meadow a mockingbird stalks a cat
in a bedroom a girl caresses her breasts
near a stable the colts jostle for oats
on a tile floor an old man awakens alone

in a sterile room a woman reaches into a man
in a nearby room a man reaches to a woman
and breath sighs from the body
and a breath swells, cold in new lungs.


Original place of publication: The Green Tricycle