Temple Oracle

You let me hear your
heart by darkness
through the still water
of the river

Down to the dock
we walk the stairs
your feet
have touched a thousand
times and a thousand more
generation upon generation
of family
of you
etched into
the wood

**

You let me touch your
heart by darkness
in the glimmering reflection
of the river

Standing on the dock
porcupine quills
in our ears
and scallops alive once more
showing your pride
to me
as I melt
within
my stony
self

**

You let me see your
heart by darkness
by the lapping sighs
of the river

We leave the docks
and paddle into
the past
through childhood joy
and the raising of a boy
who would someday
say to me
yes
yes this
yes

**

By the light of day
I let my tongue loose
unchecked and boundless
and you said to me:

*yes this
yes
I’m that boy
grown, on that water
to say YES
with you*
so I say yes
to the river
to the river
yes to the river and to you

I hold myself up
a self-referential gesture
to examine
this thing
I am
I am

my identities clash
become a single storm
in the night

across the city
away from the drag
of our daily lives
you let me peer in
into you

we are cut from moans
truths of a flame
home and observation

a gift of dreams
opens my heart
gills breathe deep
peering into
I am

I am

I promised you
satellites and starshine
truths to erupt
through my atmosphere
and you say
you say
you forgive me
as bitterness lingers
on my lips

my sunset self
falling into night

I open up the cabinet
and find you stored like knick knacks
on the shelf

Our nights together
the taxidermy desire

Our dreams of tomorrow
the shells collected by the sea

Our fears of separation
a jar of golden flakes

Our passions shared in secret
prayer shawls from faraway lands

No one else comes to this cabinet
to see the world we created together

No one else comes to this cabinet
to dust off my forgotten hopes

I create new collections
here in my kunstkammer
in my room of memory and obsession

A cabinet in the corner
opened now
missing you
missing you

Let go
of yesterday
between the sheets
as today calls us
calls us
now

Forever
does not seem
like such a long time
when I imagine
it with
you

Holding me in
down
you press into me
with your steely gaze
and metallic tongue

I struggle
to breathe
as you devour me
lips struggling
under your weight

Let me push back
lover
let me push back
and hand over
my uncertainty
to you

Let me push back
dear one
let me push back
bare my neck
open my thighs
to you

Giving in to you
giving over
my fear
as I dive out of today
dive into the now
mindfully screaming

As you hold me in
hold me down
pain suffering
elation desire
delight
in your arms

You caress
my second skin
tanned by a process
that has left me changed

You penetrate
my shielded spirit
battered by a life
that has left me bruised

Polish me
to a high shine
my love
a high shine

Let me reflect
upon my journey
my love
upon my journey

You massage
my exposed hide
scraped and scarred
that has left me gaurded

You infiltrate
my bare being
vulnerable and trembling
that you see me unveiled

As you polish me
to a high shine
my love
a high shine

Two fingers slide in
as I push back
against my identity

You open wide
on starry thighs
goddess
god
lover

somewhere here
far away
you open up
and share your cosmos with me

I become part of your spiraling dust
I am rock and ice
haunting echoes
of your pulsing pulsar lust

I breathe in your solar systems
I am asteroids and planets
flaring heat
of your sun rising eternal

I sink into your inky darkness
I am meteors and rings
orbiting hopes
of your uncharted universe

I share my cosmos with you
opened up
so close
we become intertwined

I become your lover
god
goddess
my own starry thighs
opened wide