I Never Found the River

Sunrise found me out
Languishing on the river bank
Where the sound of peacocks
And self-important finches
Dipped and darted over
My ears

Have you ever watched
The sunrise
Over the river
Rushing by
Tasting your feet
Bringing immortality
To bear on the present
Moment

I meant to go down
To the riverbank I knew
Expecting to find
Molten gold
Dancing to and fro
On the tips of sapphire ripples
Splashes of diamonds
Waiting for me
To take extravagance
On my tongue

But I was halted
Breathless in my tracks
By the sight of your
Fresh body
Wet and naked
Though clothed in the
Eternal sky

I could not speak
To the busy finches
And their arrogant kin
Weaving their industry
Like a tapestry of lapis
And gold about you

Muscles firm and tight
Loins slightly apart
Rich in the treasure of manhood
For my prying eyes
A peacock soaked in the envious sky
Whose azure beauty
By evening fades
Behind the dusky groves

Mangoes weighing down
A heavy branch
Lusty and sweet
I dream of plucking them
With my mouth
As I watch you
Dip and rise, dip and rise

Your skin alive
With millions of diamonds
My eyes devour you
Dark and becoming
The sun adores every curve
And sends the wind
Back where it came from

Somewhere in the distance
A sitar strikes
A haunting melody
While the water at your feet
Pays homage to an earthly beauty

My tongue between my teeth
Hungers for those mangoes
A branch to grasp
From a fertile tree
Beneath him
I could compose a melody
To carry my desire
Down through the ages

Such lofty sentiments
Fade as the sky fades
As the shadow of timeless mountains
Flickers over the earth
All gone so fast
But what remains?

I hold on
To this moment
Longing to savor the taste
Of mangoes
With the sunset
To wet my skin
With the libations
Of your naked youth

Invigorated
Never chaste
My thoughts run away
With that river
Those ambitious little birds
Those million diamonds
Shattering over your torso

How many hours
Did I give away
Waiting breathless
In the shadows
Thinking all the while
Of everything I could take
With my starving fingers

My lips never coaxed
The nectar
From a heavy mango
My toes never kissed
The eternal water
And I never found the river

Emerald Canopy

Moss covered rocks and Fall leaves decorate Galina Creek Park in Reno, Nevada/ Photo by the author

I risked a walk
In the garden
Virgin fruit trees
Blushing with their first blooms
An open path
Welcoming
With desire I moved in

Beneath a canopy
Of emerald
The scent of the earth
Drew me down
Down, down
Green liquor
Assailed my senses
Mesmerized my intellect
Until I was prepared
To be taken
Fully in

When you came inside me
Beneath that emerald canopy
Satin finish, the dew
On your skin
Setting my mouth alight
Biting my yielding heart
Into submission
How I still longed
For more

I brought down
The clouds
Upon us
Moving together
Without time
Without constraints
But for your arms
Firm around me
Your body
Firm inside me
Making the dew
I would taste you
Long after your departure

Bruised fruit
Once blushing, once virgin
Moved through
Your fervent hands
So anxious
For diamond droplets
Salting your tongue
With the offering
Of my thighs

Was that a martin
Calling
Chirp, chirp
Into the Summer sky?
Or was that his laughter
My passion's follies
Brought out clear
Into the hot breath
Of the sun

I blush to think
How quickly I came
Under that emerald canopy
Where blushing petals
Held onto the morning dew
But I, Never fresh again
Never innocent, shining
My skin, decorated
With bites and kisses
Found its way back
Into seclusion

I left your garden behind
But with regret
Tried to become a virgin
Again

Take Your Sacrifices

The flooded plains of the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah at sunset/ Photo by the author

I would have your hands
Be rough with me
But your heart be soft

Dreaming of your body
Covering me
Like the newly fallen dew

I am wet
Carried away
The soft parts of my form
Tempted to ripen before
Your eyes

Sent down
I fill my mouth
With the elixr
From which my life
Came forth

I would have your mind
Be empty
And your hands
Be full
Of me
But when you have taken
your fill
I would have
Your consciousness
Imbued with my scent

Overwrought with the moment
Of me
So you can never sleep again

I would have you
Inside me
The tender part of me
Filled with the inflamed mind
Of you
Stirring, the world fills
With iridescent droplets
Of life
I too am filled
Never wanting to be redeemed

god, what use for you have I now?
You jealous, angry and posessive
Monster of the ages
Take your sacrifices
And fall on your knees
Before my love 

For love
The greatest of these treasures
Is greater still than you

A sapphire lake shone forth
Like the sky
A jewel whose light the Gods envied
But how I envy him too
The sky that took you

Ever empty
Yet full in the spectral lights
The sky beneath which we make love
Makes love to the earth
When we have departed

Unobstructed
My heart sits still
In your monolithic embrace
Fixed firm on your love
I am liberated
From the temporary nature
Of mortality
Respectibility
Which hinders creation
Strangles the ages
With shackles for the mind

I am free now
Swimming in the lake of you
Where you once swam
In the embrace of so many lovers
But now, the seed that sewed you
Has sewn a promise in me
And let that god be jealous
Commanding
Vengeful

I shall make him bow
In awe of a greater love
Whose name knows no chains
Whose passion can never be bound

The greatest of these gifts
Is love
Where stirs in its lonely cage
A heart on fire and liberated

Come take your sacrifices
On the distant shore
And while you are there
O god
Bother never to return

I Tasted the Desert

A bright and clear Winter afternoon in the desert outside West Wendover, Nevada/ Photo by the author

(For S, and you know why)

Passion that never cools
Cradled by azure skies
Unfold at your feet
Because you, like the ancient mountains,
Command the desert landscape

Silenced, yet still whispering,
A view onto Eternity
Walking by your side,
Holding my breath
For the penetrating wind of changes

Come clouds, cover me
Come tawny cliffs, dominate me
Kiss me, wind of the sun-kissed plain,
And deliver me into your sacred hands

Your heart stills me,
Captivates the dancing feet
Of my consciousness
Stirring, stirring,
Moving fast through my thighs

Between my legs
I hold the vitality of endless peaks,
Stretching upward
To thrust home in the stunning veil
Of Mother Sky

Did you find contentment
In delaying our moment,
My hand soaking up
The desert heat of your chest

I heard your heart beating,
So fast, so firm
And I needed to feel the beating
Of your heart in my hand,
Like I needed the taste of
All of you on my tongue

But even the son of gods
Can be turned out into the desert,
Where the hot song of mid day
Cries out for satisfaction

All too human, my desire
All too divine, your self-control

I damn the resolve of those rocks,
Those mountains,
Those holy stones,
When all my heart wanted
Was to worship at your indomitable feet

I thirsted for your mouth,
Your hot salt on my lips.
I waited for the nakedness of your heart,
Laid open by the sacrificial knife

I drank deeply of our moment together,
But in the end tasted only the desert.

Azure sky, you burn me
Holy mountain, I am your unborn son
Distant lover, I am the miraculous spring,
Waiting impatiently
In the secret stronghold
Of the earth.  

A Ripple On Water

A dramatic sunset over the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Nevada/ Photo by the author

Stirred my heart into action
Waking the dead
Held fast in my veins, my blood

Where did you find me
When I hid beneath the surface?
How did I taste
Soft, pink, hot and warm in your hands
Your hard body like a Michelangelo sculpture

How did the sky look
When it fell
Into your lap, when the salt of your skin
Freed me
Fed me
Aroused my heart from beyond the veil

Blue, purple and red
Your blood pumps so fast
Your manhood so hard
Can I taste it all?

Back into the water
I will take the sun with me
When I go
And never again will I feel
Your heartbeat
Being born again, dying
As you fall so helplessly
In love

All I Ever Need To Know Of Rainbows

A rainbow through the Jeffrey Pines at Galena Creek Park in Reno, Nevada/ Photo by the author

Slivers of light pass through my body
A visitation of divine splendor
Expressed in a rainbow

Caress, shade, take comfort
My heart was enveloped in a secret moment
While the Gods waited on the Other Side
Of the Veil

Trees caress gilded sunbeams
Taking flight, my heart rejoins
The Sun God
Amidst ripples of Ether

Over my skin
In my mouth
Earnest and waiting for your release
I taste all I ever needed to know
Of rainbows