SECOND SKIN

I find sleep quite amiable

less resistant

after touching timpani and tiger

prowls

the other wilderness

that is yours

and my undoing

after we have done did the climbing

second skins held close

with tender cooing

the miasma of life's

howling

bowdlerizing

the sensations of our

everyday heaven

I find sleep more pliable

after a swim

in you

and I taste myself

in the salt of our comingling

skin

swathed in mouths

and prim

rose

fragrant waterfalls

thunderclouds

and rain

in the aftermath

of the climatic victory

within and about

our dance of skin

I am washed away

a tiny death

a cry to heaven

I am naked

when you're not clothed on me

how strange to need

you to swim

I find dreams much better

aloft

my second skin...