Before Sleep

 

I breathe you in and out

Taking in your scent,

Taking you soft in my hand.

 

I hold you as a holy thing

Between my arms and legs

Feeling you breathe.
Feeling your life pulse

 

And there,

Under the blanket of darkness.

Is unspoken truth

Is quiet beauty

 

In the distance

A train goes by

the soft chattering of the rails

and the soulful whistle call

 

And we wonder

Without mentioning it

About the other bedrooms

And the other lovers listening

 

And we wonder

Without mentioning it

If they are so far from us

As our solitude imagines.

 

Under the low moan

We lie together

Drinking in the dark

Taking in the silence

Riding together in our minds

The train into the night.

 

Natural Selection

A turtle rises
From the rippled river
He creeps slowly
On the muddy bank
Crawling and scratching
With dinosaur toes
Crawling and scratching
By its right to reproduce
Crawling and scratching
As his father's father did
Crawling and scratching
Up this same river bank--
With a long line of turtles
Back beyond memory
To the first turtle born
In the motherland of muck
In the universe of spring