First Night with

Doesn’t matter that I brought you dance

with any man who advances on your elbow

nudges at your sides or beckons the well known

secret beneath firebrush hair a pellucid neck

because its the beat in the house in the back

alley we’re packed too tightly to be concerned

with bodies’ arrangements if I cared more

I’d hold your wrist clasp your hand within

one of mine the other around your waist

or on the competent symmetry of your hips

make way past the bar and dance floor

to otherwise unoccupied patios where smokers

profess politics then doctrines on the night’s

undertakings where you and I can get at

an individual basis without interpreting

singular smiles when questioned when logic

leaves me these impossible feelings amazed

you want to be here despite everything

how could I complain if for a few hours

you chose me caretaker of those angular

shoulders and thin arms no one would think

can give hugs that accumulate like Karma

I want to be better to be redeemed by

a whirlwind presence of yours as simple as

pulling a cigarette to its butt setting positions

of things in space thought-experiments we

answered many questions the way two creatures

form various experiences to be observed

except what it’s like these two lips of mine

atop those two lips of yours.