Desire is a huntress

Sleek in full-bodied pursuit

Cold-scaled and sinuous

Striking open-mouthed, lock-jawed

Desperate and bold

A silent background calculation

She follows pleasure like a leaf riding a river

Like a raptor diving for a rabbit

An old horse heading for home

Awake until she tangles in her target

Or drops, throttled by exhaustion or rage

Sleeps, quiet as the dead

With her long-nailed hand on your thigh

She follows you through your dreams

Shape-shifting and duck-diving

Emerges in the quiet fog of pre-caffeinated first light

Matches her footsteps to yours,

Waiting to overtake you in some new game

 

 

 

 

Love is a different woman

No-one really remembers her face

She is simply there. No conditions, no predeterminations

No limit to what she can lift

With her community of hydraulics

No false pretenses, no lists of laws

Just her rolled sleeves and flour-dusted hands

Worn as a sun-warmed rock and wrinkled

With the cares she has taken from your own back

And bakes them into bliss

She watches eternity with her eyes on your face,

Her heart beating in your fist

She waits for you to pause in your terror and lust,

To turn towards her and see

Hold her steady gaze

She breathes in your sorrow and exhales hope

Carries you to your friends and calls you by your true name

Walks through the darkened house with her matches

Starts a fire in the old stove

With wood you thought was too damp to burn.