Gold Covers Me

A liquid gold sky spreads out over the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

(For S, even though it doesn't quite make sense)

Gold covers me
To live in your twilight
Where no man has access
Jade becomes my heart
You greedily possess
Locked away inside you
The flame of me strikes
The earth like turquoise

Uncover me
I will find you
Having thirsted for redemption
I find in your cool arms
Cool arms
Warm fingers
Marble lips, sculpted by the Gods
A light you once concealed
I bring back to the world
Above

Gold
The sun brings me back to life
For loss had claimed me
I staggered to and fro
To and fro
Wading through casual flesh
Skin and thighs

And so many available beds
Regret has never known me
But sorrow has taken me
As an ardent lover
Not as tragic as death
When darkness falls
Is it still not dark?

Gold
A treasure clasped
In patient hands
A heart gathering souls to it
As light to shattered glass
How you cut so deliciously
To feel you
Even in this terrible way
Is finer than the vain promises
Of God or man

What have I not sacrificed
For you?
My treasure, once guarded
For only the Gods to see
So easily revealed its turquoise light
The dewy leaves of trees
Playing in the breath of Summer
Faithfulness undaunted
By deceit
Love uncowed by a heavy hand

How could I fail
To serve the best in you
When the light in me
Longed to rush in
And placate the shadows?

Gold
Let me hold you again
Press my lips against you again
Hard and wet and salty
Let me cut loose my eagle's wings
To wrap around you
And in the dead of night
Defend you

Finally life descends
Into the other world
Casting out what frail breath wove
Into the fabric of your flesh
All is gone, all is silence
The earth reclaims pleasures and triumphs
But in its stillness is covered
In the spreading gold of the morning sun

Gossip of Sparrows

(For S, no matter where you go)

Betwixt heaven and earth
The eaves clad in trailing vines
Summon the nests of sparrows
Little birds, little birds
I heard your exasperated calls
Such conversation
Tumbling over a morning breeze

Your gossip reaches my ears
Content not to alight
On ancient willows
Bending beneath their own might
A scent embracing
In the arms of the morning dew

I returned again
To the place where we first kissed
My eyes not innocently caressing
Your hidden skin
Were those chattering sparrows
Eavesdropping?
Did they carry my lust to your ears
Even then?

I passed the afternoon
In idle pursuits
Dreaming of the nightfall
Decorating your bed
With my sweat
Your hard thighs with my kisses
Like prayers

I prayed for you
Locked away my dark secrets
For you
Became a virgin again
For you
But none were taken
You, a god, remained silent
To my prayers

The willows rustled
Over my grave
Waiting for you to bring me flowers
Perhaps jasmine in bloom
Perhaps lilies to entice
A lusty bee

Your sting has captured me
Not deterred my heart's intentions
Your protestations
All were in vain

When the scent of you lingers
Over the dusky mountains
As the stars are ensnared
By the midnight-black veil
An alabaster moon strokes the
Naked earth
As I in my dreams stroke you

It is a blasphemy for any other man
To speak your name
As I do
For wherever you travel
There shall never be another disciple
So penitent at your feet

Betwixt moon and royal sun
The eaves in the evening sing
With the gossip of sparrows
Where lie my intentions, trembling
And you, too, will one day
Wait for the pleasure of
My hand

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.  

I Sat Near A Stream

Fall leaves give way to Galena Creek, Reno, Nevada/ Photo by the author

I sat near a stream
To see where your love
Would take me.
The trickle of cool water
Carried me away
From the frantic heat
Of a mid day sun
Set high in the empty sky.

You flow with the clouds,
Away and beyond my grasp,
Though once I languished
In your bed
Even long after the sun
Captured the innocent sky.

Tender leaves, falling
Blue-bellied birds, calling
The pallid moon, never falling
Asleep in my waking dreams.

I sat near your coffin
Awaiting your return
To life;
Your chest to rise and fall,
The love in your voice
To call.
But the Summer sun faded
Before my very eyes,
The rising crescent moon
Smitten by midnight skies.

How short are the Winter days
You left behind,
Your hot lips a memory
I have jealously locked away.
The eager pleasure of your
Hard body,
Staying green in the field
Of my abundant memories,
Though the touch of your hands
Has faded, never again.

I sat near a stream
To see where my life would ebb,
How many breaths could I take
Beneath the water
Filling my lungs
With liquid slumber
Like a baby in my mother's womb.

Will the empty sky miss me,
The earth taste my still fair flesh?
How long will the waters flow
Without me,
Once my soul is flying high?

Dying Venus

A stunning Winter sunset on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

Molten, electric light
Seizes my thighs
My mind's eye taken by
Dark firmament
Pierced through by gilded
Storm
Wanting, wanting, wanting

Venus rises high
Such sheer power
Holds tight
My breath, my skin,
The blood traveling hard
The course my veins
Dictate
Rising, rising, rising

Lapis vault grasping
Bruised crescent moon
Where stars paint the light
Absorbed by sensuous curves
Below
How I want inside, inside inside

I take the gold you offer
So generously from the clouds
Moving in, grasped by an anxious moment
Even the sky can be afraid
When the certainty of light is
Obscured in the moment
How far I am behind, behind, behind

Timid blue, shattered by the passion
Of the dying sun
How quickly he gives up his glory
How certainly his light fades

But you
My night sky, my ethereal grave
Without effort hold me fast
In your embrace
When the sun has failed me
When all my life has drained
Away, away, away

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

Cruel Apollo

Purple desert sunset in West Wendover, Nevada/ Photo by the author

Removed from the light
Captivated by Hades
As if the dawn had never mattered

Long life?
What need have I for you
When in a single night
I can learn what God has
Never spoken
And surpass heaven
Inside his mortality

Purple cloak where stars fade
Where fall the noble lights
Cast millions of years ago
Wet, again and again
You come inside me
And light is swallowed by
The midnight sun

Cruel Apollo
To have taken my innocence
So quickly
Leaving your seed behind
As a signal for the end

Bring me closer to the edge
Of the world
Where life has no beginning
Without the end in your abyss

Have You Seen the Desert of My Heart?

The desert mountains surrounding West Wendover, Nevada/ Photo by the author

What true love can bring
Have you seen the desert of my heart?
Where I have kept virgin and pure 
The quintessence
Of my longing

To be renewed in your
Arms,
To be redeemed by your
Fervent kisses,
The bite of your flesh,
And the longing in
Your eyes.

But you have never
Thirsted for me,
Crossed the lonely and
Burning sands for me,
Sacrificed your religion
For me,
Renounced your false God
For me.

The sun takes me
The sand alone makes love
To me
The wind sings songs,
Makes love,
Only to me.

Have you seen the desert of my heart,
Where the Gods long for water...
Where all men come to die

Fortune or Acclaim

A cool night falls in the desert mountains of Utah/ Photo by the author

Sun upon my face,
Moon at my back,
Stars weaving their magic about my contemplation.

How surprising to find you here, 
In a heavenly mirror without age, without death.

I would rather waste away my day in the sun, 
And my nights in the fire of your bed, 
Than have fortune or acclaim in the world of little men.

Stars, my lovers, 
Sea and moon, my ecstasy,
And my climax my end.

I caress you in my waking dreams, 
Where death is kept at bay by the sun upon my face.