Aubade

What if we step outside this dream
and not return where we came from,
those ashen images that blur at dawn.

- Look, time has not touched you -
your hair still drapes in waves of indigo silk
and your eyes are still the shade of ancient woods.

You ask me to lay in your bed, to love you
in the room with the red walls again.
And me…restored to the body

of Apollo, the archer god,
the gold sun that woke you every morning
and kissed your bare feet.

Let's walk outside this dream before we vanish.
Don't be afraid, we will not fall.
There are no rules, no gravity in dreams

DQ 9/25/08

Burying

When you knelt by the dirt road,
wedged your fingers in the cracks
and slowly dismembered
the earth’s old flesh
tearing roots to make
a grave, I wanted to warn you
about the useless effort.

Yesterday you sat naked
on my chest, wedged
your fingers deep inside
my ribs looking for the heart.
You found it, held it, read it
and asked about the name it had
engraved.

Here you are digging again, burying
our love...“the part that died” - you say.
Well I got news for you…
I buried one long ago,
and now its blood comes out
singing, yesterday you read
her name out loud.

DQ 9/25/08

Statue

Statue

Lips sticky from pollen,
segments of mid-summer
colored heat. You stood
in foam and shells

with sea salt in your hair
shimmering petals
of blood red blossom, breasts
buoyant in the archaic air.

Last time I saw you,
you were made of stone
and stood there, armless, in the
ground floor of the Louvre.

How it must have trembled,
the hand with the chisel,
the first time you disrobed.

DQ 9/21/08

DQ 9/21/08

Raspberries and Cabernet

Remember that evening
made of raspberries,
so much deep pink and ripe flesh,
we thought the air was wounded?

How we exhausted our bodies
carrying cups of Cabernet
across the bed, as our eyes
took snapshots of the mirror…

Later that night we used your
lipstick to paint stars across the mirror.
I saw your image arc towards
the sky before the supernova

fused the surface.
Here we are beneath the quicksilver.
Light years later, hotel maids still
attempt to wipe our bodies from the glass.

DQ 9/12/08