Poem: 'A Taste For Butterflies'

 

A TASTE FOR BUTTERFLIES/ 

THE WORLD IS FULL OF MATCHING PAIRS 

I’m thinking of you skinny-dipping in your pool 

airplane lights rippling the reflected stars above 

the big dipper trickling water 

across the northwestern sky, 

cascading stardust into your pool as you bathe 

chasing little bits of stardust across your body 

kissing the starbursts springing over your skin 

I message you this memory, 

for love knows no gravity, 

love has its hemispheres, 

when you read Anaïs Nin 

it leaves unsettling emptiness, 

you paint in your studio 

in mystical languages 

that tease my senses, 

we live in hope 

beyond our means, 

you message intimate photos 

of your body to my laptop… 

we meet for coffee 

with serious amorous intent 

I’m at your tender mercies, 

but you don’t have 

to be too tender, for 

we cut into now, and 

our tomorrow bleeds away, 

then we go to bed together 

you in Seattle 

me in Yorkshire…