For Alex


You tremble
as we touch. I want to open you
like petals, observe
each vein, each shift of color
across your skin, chart the subtle pulse
beneath your wrist, inhale your scent,
borrow your heat, ride the rise
and fall of your breath; to map
your undiscovered beauty.

Then I'll lay your head in my lap,
comfortable as a favorite book,
and spill music into your mouth, feed
grand plans and the wintergreen
and peppermint of your boyness
to the man waiting inside you.


© 1991 John Goss