quickly now
before our bodies turn on themselves
before I can no longer kneel between your legs
cat arched in supple curves
or bend into a position of acceptance
before time races from game show to game show
and we check mark the hours by our medications
before what drains from our bodies is no longer sweet
make love to me quickly
like a beast with uncontrolled temper
an appetite with a ravenous mouth
impatient hands, rough hands
scraping my skin with dirty words
make love to me slowly
the way I browse ancient books
fingers trailing along spines
cherished, reverent, sweet
young, as a stick against white washed pickets
make love to me now
tuck the scent into the album of our sleeves
to pull out like a tissue
gauzy in the dementia of our aging
dab at our eyes with the memory of twisted limbs
when our bodies lie flaccid and rebellious
against our pulse
quickly
slowly
NOW!
.
.
.
Wow! That certainly encourages the idea in me!
ReplyDeleteMy next door neighbor died. His wife stands in her driveway...dumbstruck, as construction workers continue to build the sewing room he wanted her to have. He was in his fifties. One day here, the next gone. There is no time to waste in living. Death can be swift.
ReplyDeleteI always find so much depth and longing in these words of yours sweet friend. Wisdom...
ReplyDeleteTime is only as cruel as we allow it to be. Love is not an invincible soul, rather the movement of turbulent waves we learn to surf.
Here in my quietude, I remain amazed by you. (Hugs)Indigo
Ahhhhh, this is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWow!!! I gotta go find my hubby!
ReplyDeleteCarpe diem indeed!
ReplyDeleteFuck....i think i just did...
ReplyDeletePhewwww...Now that i have returned to the ground..you can ward off that comment from appearing here, but for a few seconds it happened(it really did)...I think i've been drained of more than i have ever been at any other time....If you know what i mean....And i did not move a muscle...Your words just held me by the throat and then it went how you say it goes....its summers here..everywhere...Mercy!
ReplyDeleteso lovely and vivid, and sad coupled with your story.
ReplyDeleteIndigo - I am just so conscious of time flying by, and the fact that we can claim to stake in tomorrow. We need to grab today by the throat, shake the spittle from it's mouth until it's a rag we've wrung completely dry. Love and prayers friend!
ReplyDeleteMissing - That's nice! Go find him...NOW! :)
Manik - Words can be so powerful. It's such a compliment when a poem can make someone FEEL. This poem could be a metaphor for life in general. I used making love because it is so needy...either impatient and insistent, or slow and languid, but needy. Today is needy also, or I am needing of the day. A full spectrum day. Tomorrow will be here before we know it!
Bttrflyscar - It is sad. Amazingly sudden death, but also a full life, at least it seemed so. He died staring toward heaven saying, "Look at all the babies."
Awesome, Annie, just a perfect write. Poor Ray is painting right now or I'd go jump his bones. Tee-Hee.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about your neighbor. Carpe Diem. We are never promised tomorrow, are we?
Love you!!!!!
Marion
i'm sad for her. tell her to go in, sit down, remember.
ReplyDeleteyes, pull him down to the bedclothes, to the floor, to the ether. drink one another up. cry. hold hands.
xo
erin
Marion - Ha ha. It'll be fall in three months. Sheesh! Sounds like a lifetime. Get your ass out to California. It's only 92 and no humidity :) You know Marion, we aren't even promised today! Carpe Diem! Love you too.
ReplyDeleteErin - Actually she is doing well. They were a fiercely solid couple. They had no fear of death and I'm not sure even solitude. But the unexpected jolt of a sudden death leaves the mouth gaping in mid sentence.
(Hugs)
Annie
Intimacy at any speed, I love this, so much
ReplyDeleteAn excellent poem!
ReplyDeleteThe poem is great. Of course I showed it to my wife immediately. There is true insight in your words of being in the now. It is always better to be living and doing completely, not waiting for a potential better time. Of course my wife noted she is younger. Now has a different meaning sometimes.
ReplyDeleteLorraine and Matt - Thank you! It's an old theme...this living for the moment. I talk of it often, live it far less.
ReplyDeleteAnthony - Your wife is younger than??? you? me? Explain a different meaning of "now". I think I'm missing her point :)
A longing, A missing, A need. To be made whole again. Slave to freed.
ReplyDeletethis is just plain terrific, top to bottom:)
ReplyDeleteEd - I got your book! Thanks so much for signing it! Hope the next edition says "New York Times Best selling Author", Shutter Bug.
ReplyDeleteI'm a month late on this, but I'm in. I forget how much I miss reading your poems.
ReplyDelete- Eric, now walking funny