IV - Gently

Ornamented branches reaching, ivory
And rosy dimpled thimbles gathered rain.
A lone drop fell upon your upturned lip.
I kissed you there, then kissed again.
I kissed your eyes and nose and neck;
Your hand braced me. I brushed your back—
Breath and pulse, breast and hip—
I followed a wanton beam, a bead of sun
That trickled languid down, a drop
That dripped and lapped a lazy rivulet.
I prayed with mouth to your mouth,
Fingers opened you, immersing, both
The depth and surface rippling, floated
Gently from one wave crest to the next.
All these in the ever-wider space
Between two shuddered breaths.
And on exhale you rose again to meet
Me as I rose. The matted hair you swept
Out of your sweat-stung eyes, and time kept
With your bare chest on my chest. Clouds
Skidded by. The rain soon lashed the grass
And soothed your flushing skin.
Spread naked by the sun and rain, you came
Unwound twice more, first breast, then hip—
Began one dance, then scarcely parted lips
To moan my name before we joined again.
Your damp limbs tangled mine, one, two.
I wandered in and out of you.
The sodden silver moonlight dribbled down—
You wore a million droplets simply sewn
By our hands’ insistent rhythm in the dark.
I rushed to stroke your body, strike a spark.
You slowly burned my body as your own.

EJR