Ways of Making Love

slowly. softly. secretly. with your

eyes open. with your fists taut. with

one or two or five or fifty other

thoughts in your head besides her

or him or them or yourself, your own

skin wet hard & pressure, & pleasure, &

the building of the straining of the undoing

of falsehoods. the construction of a self.

the honesty of bodies & the lies hidden under skin.

quickly. quietly. thinking of needles. thinking of

moonlit fields & turning tides & that little

cap of snow on the hills. swell of breast & hip

nestled in your palm, joints against hardwood

bedframes, sigh of spring, to knock out your

breath & replace it with sweetsharp endings.

press it to the arch of your mouth.

kiss.