Poetry Post I - My poetry

April is poetry month, and I've been writing some new pieces, but they're not ready yet. So, for the rest of the month, I'll be posting bits of old and new poems. Here are some of my older poems that are still fit for public consumption.

Lullaby

in this warm
quiet cocoon
I envy your stillness
and the childlike sleep
that covers your face like cream linen

bracing,
I lie caramel-coated
to you

Can I trust this?
This need
to twine around you,
to be inside you
to kiss
to carve out a hollow for myself

(your skin
smells still
of that soap I love,
of musk and desire)

pale lantern flicker
through the thickening air-
through sticky-soft dreams-

(no one has ever touched me like you do-
no one else
has ever run
their fingers
in small
delicious
circles
all over
my body)

no one ever told me
it would be like this-
they always speak
of the joy, or
the hunger of the flesh,
the arching of bare backs
in the night

and yes
that you have given me

no one ever told me
it could be so desperate,
how my love for you
is as sharp as your hipbones--
I fear that if
I dipped down my lips
to kiss them
they might cut

breathe a little deeper
and I will keep you
under my dreaming spell,
oh, I will sing to you
the first dulcet notes
of a familiar tune--

hush hush,
my darling
I will guard
your sleep

Lacuna

I placed the rosemary under the pillowcase,
smoothed the yellowing sheets worn silken
by the constancy of my cheek
Here and there a strand your of hair--
I haven't washed it since

I cried the night it stopped smelling of you
(only me, my skin)

I placed the rosemary under the pillowcase,
tucked it away among the old tee shirts
The bits of silver, candied confetti and scarves
I lost the photos of you at the sea

I placed the lid upon the box
I pulled the string on the light

And in the darkness
One small star, still glowing