Poem to a nonsoldier where I can't see him

 

I love you.

You can keep this in your

mouth. I love you

In your wrists

Behind your eyes

I love you in your nerves

Your shin-bones.

It's yours. And my feet are yours

Small, cold. My blood

yours. Teeth.

They bite a thousand little pearls

My kisses. I love you

In the dust of war. I love your

prostrate body, mouth pressed not

to a cross but my words, not to die

Not to die. You live with me, my parakeet,

my svelte bird, you live.

In the dust. I will say my words again

So they are clean. On your stomach

on the ground I love you. In the soldier

night I love you. At the front

men sit, male, alone,

you touch yourself because I love you.

Your throat because I love you there.

The days are moving. Come back

To my touch and the wind and the rain,

the pregnant clouds, to me.

Come back and leave your army

to watch over itself. Leave the front

When it is time, there is more 

to see yet I carry the silence 

of you there I love you.

You know. Next time you can ask

Your bones. Your bones.

​

Published Autumn 2020 in Leland Quarterly.