Winter

          Anthony Frame

 

And now we rest, now that the bees and spiders are sleeping for the season,

now that your garden lies beneath fallen leaves and a glaze of frost, now that
 

all that remains is you and me. It was you I'd been waiting for all these years,

watching as seeds blew off of dandelion heads, wanting to fly away with 

their feathered fingers. This is how a man wakes up, just as he has since childhood, 

naked, damp with sweat after another night of running in his sleep, but tonight

you are there to catch me. This is how a man is opened, your lips on my thighs,

a line of your fingerprints still tattooed on my shoulders. This is how I learn

to let go, all the horrors in my head as quiet as this neighborhood, this night,

and the man who, years ago, woke me with his scratchy hands and damp beard,

the man who stays in my head, in my blood, how do you keep him from being

here with us? I'm just a body of clay waiting for a little water, love, something

to wash away the dirt deep beneath my skin. Don't you see, it was you all along,

blowing in my ear, making wind to remind me of the turning world, currents

to show life is nothing but motion. That man took my sleep, replaced it with 

clouds and streetlights until, unable to compete, the stars gave up, faded beneath

the fluorescent glow, but you turned my eyes into planets orbiting your hips. Now

I have lost my voice, your legs hugging mine, the salt of your tongue twisting

in my mouth, your skin against my skin my path to salvation, the only sacrament

I've ever needed. I spend my days killing ants and cockroaches, my mind
 

racing after trails and egg capsules, but now, molded by your hands, it is quiet.

Listen, you touched me, and I was never the same, these hairs that cover my body

hold your scent, they keep your touch safe within my fragile skin. Sometimes,

it takes a twelve hour work day to empty the nightmares I carry but what if 

it only took you taking off my glasses so I go blind, so I see the sky, my back 

bare against the bed, so there is nowhere to go but up, nowhere to go but where 

you are. I've learned the world is made mostly of water. The same is true of you 

and me, so still me, love, one more time. Sometimes, it only takes your tongue.