For Kristen

I choose you
because you choose to be with me
when I'm down.

And say,
"Everyone's down, sometimes."

And,
"Everyone comes around."

You know what's up,
and what's underground.

You won't shackle with a wedding band,
or make a prison cell of a marriage bed.

You are happiest when you share yourself;
if you must be alone, it is to replenish your pools,
that you may again enjoy the pleasure of giving.

When I apologize for the weed I smoke,
you say, "Everybody's got something."

And, "Nobody's perfect."

You don't act like you said anything,
or like you loved.

You walk without a sound.
Humility without humility;
stripped even of itself.

(Moon in the 12th Conjunct Neptune)

You sweeten when you know I like something;
take pleasure in seeing me take pleasure.

Your smile crimps like a child's,
and there is a softness around the corners
which, to a brute, can only be angelic.

Every minute is Christmas morning.
I have never felt this happiness in being close.

I've felt passion like this;
romance, anxiety and expectation...
But never such peculiar joy, arising everywhere.

Your breasts shine like full fruits.
A thousand colors that aren't there
shine inside my head.

I am curled inside the husk of you,
bending over me like the crescent moon.

Your calm contains my flight;
my desire fills your gentleness with light.

I have learned to run,
so I might fall at your feet,
a wild thing, and let you tame me.

Beat my legs into ploughshares and pruning hooks.

Touch me until I forget the war,
and the way men are to one another.

You say, "I like being a woman."

And I tell you, "You're good at it."

I don't understand how you can be so soft,
and so much stronger than me.