By Paloma60@yahoo
Date: 28 September 1999

Tender Times

You are a part of my skin,
slipped quietly in
one night while you held me
and I could feel my heart
pounding a staccato beat
like a crazed bird
desperate to be free
of the ribs that held it.

There are drums in my blood
that whisper your name
no matter where I turn or look
and I told myself that lust can do that
to comfort my soul,
when it saw you with clearer eyes
then this mind of mine.

I was willing to chalk it up
to random lust---having given up 
on such daydreams...but lust doesn't dance
with the spirit,
it fires the flesh
not the heart.

Skin would be enough
to feed this hunger, I said
while you laughed at me with your eyes.
You accepted what I could not,
and waited for me
to grown into my pinions
flex my wings,
and catch that first warm thermal.

Spinning, reeling
drunk with the power of flight,
I tumble into your arms
hear the rumble in your ribs,
answered by the drums in my own
and wonder why
I was so afraid
to give this it's proper name
all along...