Embracing Someone Unexpected

 

I thought of you as cold - a flint-eyed

Statue;

Marble, securely tied up, buttoned

Down tight.

Yet you came at me, bolt from the black,

Arms out;

Pink circles formed on alabaster

Cheeks, wide

Pupils sparked with overhead lights – dim

Amber.

My head fitted in the gap beneath

Your ear;

Slotted positive and negative

Spaces

On a jigsaw. Your broad, hard bone pressed

Against

My spongy softness. I held my breath

For fear

Each exhalation would scald you with

Its heat.

Suspending its beat, my heart denied

Its quick,

Guiltily painful throb against yours.

I had

Been drinking juice, the blackcurrant still

Sweet in

My mouth. I wondered what it would be

Like to

Baste your lips with sugar from my tongue;

Leave stains,

Purple butterflies across your chest.