Intimacy in time.

The walls shot up between us
like skyscrapers in the jungle
to violate our warmth;
and hostile - the spaces between us
grow.

Furious I'd let -
my hair down
(as though you
might be the sort to climb
up, and let me tell you stories
of all the dragons I've slayed.)

I've written this poem before:
this pen is the mast
of our sinking ship.
(If you look closely, you can see
me - wind ravaged in the crows nest.

If I look closely, I can see
your spirit wandering
the ocean floor,
finally free of your
rude and useless body.)

-------


If you put me on the stove with

1 tbs cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1/2 tbs ginger
1/2 c orange peels

just turn up the heat. Let simmer.

Soon my sweetness will blossom,
I'll slip lovely into a mug
to keep you comfort while you watch
the wind;

or the house may burn down,
and we could then be seen
from space.

------


As far as I can tell, we were standing
still
but the spaces grew between us
and vast --

like looking at you through water
your knees blur at strange angles
like a mirage, we fell into some
vague story about people who only looked
like us.

I used to like us; I don't anymore.
now we look like inflated pool toys
bumping into each other
at random, awkwardly.

I have grown jumpy
and bored.

----

I lift you up, carry you to the
bed, gently lay you down.
I cradle you, I wonder if
you would leave me, if you could.

I'm glad it wasn't that way with us,
we started slow - no one-night-stands.
If I felt like you were using me
we just talked it through, You'd still sleep

next to me everynight. I love the way
we've learned to live together,
and even if you sometimes make a mess or
miss the litter box, I forgive you.