by Elizabeth Vongvisith
(01/09/08)

I fell asleep before you could even manage
to bring me out of my lethargy, but undaunted, you
cornered me there anyway, waking me suddenly
later with half-remembered slow stirrings,
my cunt clenched tight as a miser's fist
around the memory of your heat inside;

and I slept through TV and movies, staring
into the blackened, blank space behind
my closed eyelids, watching your hands
roam over my damp flesh and your mouth
fastening over the tender birdlike pulse
that beats tremulously under my skin.

There is no salacious opportunity you let pass,
whether it's taking me standing, fingers trailing
over and over my skin like warm air currents
moved to sharp lust right here, right in front
of a roomful of my unwitting friends, or else
just you and me frantic inside the shower stall.

Breath after breath pushes out of me, only
to be inhaled as you're feeding from me,
my lungs, my veins, my body heat
twisting into an unseen inferno stoked by you,
mad with the desire to go home and let
you, beloved, overtake and consume me

like thunder or a crushing wave while
I writhe in the torment of need and cling
to you in the space between air molecules,
your hunger lapping every crevice of me
unseen but not unfelt in this singular way,
as you mark me as yours, possessed, taken

even though I can only see your face
with eyes adjusted to the wavelength
that balances between worlds and collects
the erratic light-waves that flash and pulse
in the spheres of the seeker's imagination
and all the longing fires of the chained heart.

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