Beyond
from Sessions, page 18
ISBN 1-931002-03-7
Petaluma, 2000
The veil between us
allows me to watch you like a ‘67 movie
while your face creases over some complication
not so small to you.
You are a book favored from childhood
come to life,
yet I can only gauge you as a stranger.
And though you sit only inches away,
the line of sight to you
is the farthest trip I have so far taken.
A trip to another world,
a ringed planet,
a phantom of a memory
sustained by secret habits
and forbidden visions.
Blond connection fallen through the demise of brilliance,
different from the rest,
you move to a beat of your own creation.
Your tilting head bends energy,
your sinuous profile refracts light.
Finally with the craft of an islander
delivering his rhythms to the top forty
you dare me to descend to the love-lit room
at the bottom of the stairs.
Love.
Love and the end of it all caught
in the curious scent of a subtle savagery.
Fruit of a foreign dynasty,
honey-sweet fruit of American hip,
your grasp finally seizes me
like a mambo on a sultry Southern night.