Over 20 paces, I unpack the history,
Force the meaningless to vanish, slag
The tailings onto an invisible pile.

Like a pirate flag, a skull-and-crossbones
Of black and yellow, time only flows
One way, drowning the noises in its wake.

Veins criss-cross, weaving a spider’s
Web of longing and ardor, spooning
Sweets at one other without regret.

Golden tendrils float and fall, like
The moon past its quarter glow, like
The soft down on your forearms.

I catch you basking in the penumbral shade.
Your eyes are truer than blue, more
A palimpsest than dusty slate, calling

And cajoling the truth hidden within.
Stay the course, you say with conviction,
Resting on ancient artefacts and marble

Pillars, echoing the Greeks’ lament,
The ineluctable fount, the source
Of what we’ve become, misanthropic

Lovers in time, never sharing our fortune.
Don’t touch the marble, the sign reads.
But I touch it as if it were your cheek.

I have no ability to resist. I find abandon
In your steadiness. It offers the redemption
I crave, the invitation into your secrets,

The ones you hold close, their unabiding
Warmth and comfort. It’s this vision
I grip like a green lollipop in a child’s fist,

Or a waterlogged plank on a raft, adrift,
As I can’t do otherwise, or look elsewhere,
The burden too wrenching. But I know you

Hold the code, the magical formula
That will keep us safe from harm,
From ravagement, allowing us to explore

The bounty that, ever unresistant, is you.
You own the knowledge of the owl, freeing
Us to soar, unbound, untethered, on the puffs

Of a shamelessly irreverent zephyr.
In all, you shelter us in your fierce radiance,
Your capacious heart, your you-ness,

So, there’s no time to lose.