Cause and Effect
|
| Because you touched me -- almost didn't |
| touch me -- brushed a little finger's outer edge |
| against my unsuspecting hand, |
| traffic stopped |
| chatter ceased |
| and such |
| a silence settled on the rough stone |
| wall where we sat that a green |
| moth near our feet forgot to fly. |
| Clouds froze in midair and out beyond |
| the Golden Gate waves paused in precarious arcs |
| before they collapsed and slid toward shore. |
| You spoke. |
| My words swung up like almost imperceptible |
| spiders' lines to meet yours. |
| |
| Because your thumb traced a line, |
| softly traced and traced along |
| the ridge to my wrist, my fingers |
| warmed, curled around your thumb and pressed |
| into the mound of flesh at its base. |
| Lost in constantly changing forms, my finger |
| and your thumb intertwined |
| explored |
| writhed like two |
| kelp tendrils caught by the current. |
| One escaped to touch |
| hair, touch eyes, touch lips. |
| Lips captured lips, themselves lost, |
| themselves a tangle of lips and tongues. |
| Lips sought throats, ribcages, ankles, |
| hands found buttocks and breasts, probed |
| the warm region between the thighs. |
| Your arms wrapped around me, |
| we rose and fell with the tide. |
| |
| Because you did not speak, did not |
| say goodbye but |
| held my body to your smooth brown shoulder |
| and filled my wordless mouth with yours; |
| because you did not stop me as I left, |
| did not try to |
| push the pain of parting past |
| its own natural crest; |
| because you cast me loose, |
| I floated home on empty city streets, |
| leaving behind a phosphorescent trail to your door. |
| |
| -- Susannah Martin |
