love, this liquid verb

love, this liquid verb, uttered

even in your absence and by

heavy sleep followed was swallowed

by the bed; self-mastered, un-

beheld i

slept (in)

(memory's soft-lit cinema)

(the domed roof: skull) where

here before we

showed you naked on

our screen, brown-

breasted, black-

haired, mag-

nificent, ob-

scene; me

old as a drought: i had been pure

thirst for the river between

your legs, it thick

as clear blood where

often i lapt it, calf-blind, teaching

you spasm. your cats

(so black they)

(seemed made of your)

(hair)

surely miss that

baffling moisture.