You say
     you don’t like poetry
     don’t want to hear it
     just never got it
     and I swoon because
     your air in my lungs
     wants to thicken into words
     birth verses composed
     of our mingled spit
     two tongues
     that nose playfully in the rain
     stanzas of falling sweat
     strophes written with a single finger
     on flesh not touched
     not this way
     not like this
For the motion of your quivering
     toes by my ear
     is poetry
     the stillness of your
     open lips
     is poetry
     the curve of your belly
     in the candlelight
     under my hand
     is poetry
And maybe you don’t like poetry
     because you are poetry
     iambic hips birthing
     rhymes that spit so hard from you
     they become gang bang graffiti
     on my headboard
And the two syllables of your name
     I speak over and over
     into candle sweetened air
     are the alpha and omega
     of what it means
     to be alive
Yes
     love is only a word
     it is the shortest poem ever written
But you say you don’t like poetry
     so I will let you stop
     my tongue with yours
     let my voice go hoarse
     be content to rest
     in your silence
Just ask and I will gladly still my pen
     and never write
     another verse with your name
     but please oh please
     just now just this once
     then never again
For tonight in this bed
     at this late hour
     as we move slowly
     your rhythmic cadence
     consonants sharp
     and vowels round
     raw dangling syllables
     and stanzas of blood
You don’t realize
     that it is you
     that has become the poet
     you that speaks in cries
     which crystallize and become
     two primal words
     whispered over and over
For if love is the shortest poem
     then this is the one we will live by
     your entreaty to me or to the gods
That simplest verse
     uttered again and again by lovers
     since we first found our voices
     the purest poetry and
     the most complete prayer

     don’t stop
     don’t stop
     don’t stop

     (First published in The Legendary, 2009)