i like to watch your breast heave, the pulse of your green veins
smoldering at the crack of my lips,
your brimming breath speaks passion
bloodrush like the swell of desire in a room
surging higher and higher to my eyes, craving life;
our mouths thirst for milk and wellsprings
our clothes laugh, unashamed, into death throes
oblivious to the day’s disquiet;
you close your eyes, compose your shoulders, offer your neck
and tiny hairs unfurl into games and crosswords,
my nose is doglike, my fingers swarm around you
your smiling breath hoists my clavicle
like a wheel that rises and falls with your sighs
— at last you inhale a whole spirit
with several lives — while your eyes wink in pleasure;
i finger the kretek lit by her body,
as smoke seeps to your sublime realm of solemn jest and becomes a city;
i have touched it, i seize it all on a day like this
on a day you urge me to conquer, a day like this.