The perfect excuse;
long after rays of the sun melt
and wind
in its audacity seeks to caress the skin ever so softly,
early black is sultry, salted caramel
in anticipation
for something only lovers can comprehend—
his lips are copper wire,
green sprouts that bring a desert to bloom, every word,
every phrase, every sentence— I know not
how he manages to read lines and the spaces in between;
only that
in warmer breezes his are the ones that are finer
than silk, smoother than water itself; is it so wrong
to admire from up close?

And though taste of life be bitter at times,
kiss me;
what lies beneath the shadows can’t hurt us
if we choose
to hold hands with amber sun— come,
lay your voice prints and set a record of sorts,
observe a part of me measuring sighs in both flesh
and breath;
throbbing temples
citing constantly “love them loud, love them quietly,”
there is a longing that binds us together.
Humor me;
I like to think I am more than inconsequential,
a random, forgettable moment in his electric blue existence—
a reason
good enough for him to give himself to me completely.

His fingertips, delicate and effective
as paint brushes
sift through sediments of all things unsaid; so many songs
I hear remind me of him,
knuckles gliding slowly along my cheekbone
in midst
of bare streets stripped of traffic
and noise; there must be a conspiracy in the airwaves—

Stay a little longer, comrade mine,
so that I may whisper my views to you, as we sit in separate rooms,
in different places with eyes lowered;
I am hating this wantonness,
this improbability of hands reaching gently through the walls
I have brought down— no doubt, he would look divine
in my darkness.
Go on, I love that you see my expression and cannot help but smile.
It’s infuriating,
it’s rousing,
it’s beckoning a poem from the depths
that should be enough,
but isn’t.

His lips are copper wire.

 

 

 

 

Photo credits: Pinterest

Poem inspired by the title of Jean Toomer’s poetic masterpiece,“Her lips are copper wire.” 💝

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Posted for Open Link LIVE #284 @ dVerse Poets Pub