Virginal

Sweet thing, such a sweet thing

in this small courtyard of surprise

where afternoon sun silkens

shoulders that ache.

Your breasts of moist moonlight,

your presence, a nectar shining

like rain onto earth’s first moments.

Your freckled smile a gift

to relinquish, not hold nor keep.

Your cloak of sky, chipped edges

faded from loving through salt

marsh and tide,

reveals oceans of radiance

that mend, nourish, gently

unbind.

Here in grief’s well

I sit in virginal stillness

taken by your gaze,

your being so kind.

Origins of silence

cry from your eyes.

This joyride of innocence

steals my breath, my doubt.

I whisper ‘thanks’, stagger

through puddles of absence,

of memory that swell

our two hearts.

And alone, together

in life’s hour of quiet

we tremble,

we weep.