Limb to Limb

His legs are in fact like his stories
strong, subtle, unexpectedly animal one moment
then elegant again

His words reveal
childhood ballet lessons
above a fire station

Pushed into the room by his mother
who watched with subliminal thrill
as he bee-lined to young instructress

As he threw his arms around perfect thighs
buried his face in black tulle
inhaled the essence that would forever ignite him

Yet he would turn away in a moment of loss
as maman slipped from the studio
to flirt with firemen below

Decades later
Child in man, memories in muscle
kneel and melt at barre, pyre, altar

To love him is to love
every inch of his unrolfed body
every cell of his diamond-edge mind

each flame of his rapt intuition
To love him is to give
and take in complete freedom

No claustrophobic studio
No firehouse
Just fire

©Lynne Douglass

Libertine Vigil

The paws of their white cat
massage her back
as she lays over him, naked, in the sunshine
It is their cat simply because
it appeared to them
one night in August under a French street lamp
as they parked, hot and secret
in the cul-de-sac over his house

And now, here, blatantly,
a chaise longue on his back porch
barely out of view of neighbors

She holds still for a moment, enjoying
little cat feet on her skin
his absolute attention inside her
her breasts on his chest

A car door slams
Too distant and wrong-timed
For his driveway
yet she tenses
Clenched muscles of her back
frighten the cat
who ceases purring
digs claws into flesh
then jumps away

His arms encircle her
His fingers smear sticky cat-drawn drops of blood
And he holds her

She rocks against him
Neural pathways of electricity
Catch, pulse
Faster, harder...

And they hold one another
like they're falling through space
No car doors no neighbors no portents no danger
Just their nerve centers
Melting together
Like lava like candle wax like alchemy
Impossible ever to part

And the white cat watches,
red-clawed,
From the kitchen window sill

©1999-2002 Exquisite Corpse - If you experience difficulties with this site, please contact the webmistress.