The Strangest Touch is Skin on Skin

Whitman touched his share of skin

and didn't think of it as sin,

and yet could bring himself to say

“What is more or less than a touch?”

The laying on of more than hands,

he found, as much as he could stand.

The familiar has been felt before

and yet we falter when once more

we lie in bed at end of day.

Think--we've had much

            of this; a quarter of a century--

this is our carnal anniversary.

We reach, the gap is closed again.

this night, like others, is akin

      to schoolchildren's play.

The feel in that clutch

is ever new, as we begin;

      the strangest touch is skin on skin.