6. choreography of home

we are, each of us, broken hearted 
saying no over and over to our beloveds 
outstretched palms and warming 
eyes and yearning arms 

we do not let ourselves kiss our beloveds’ 
holy back for fear we will have to watch 
it melt into the next horizon

we are each of us praying the sun will set 
on our beloveds trembling heart so we 
will never again have thoughts of endings 
dragging like thorns across tender skin

but we are each our own beloved spun in 
enduring reflections we cannot banish in 
delicate avoidance of our fears of being left

our own humming heart fibers are bent over
our bedsides moistening our lips in the gentle 
medicines of staying, pillowing our crowns and
brushing our foreheads in sweet scents of
remembering

in swirls of desire like flurries of hand written love
notes painting our limbs in a sticky sap of knowing,
the ancient code of our divinity