You Called the Light Out of Me

You called the Light
Out of me
When by night
I passed in silence
The forlorn sentinels
Of cypress trees
Standing as guardians
Of a past
Still painfully present

I needed a voice
To guide me
Through the snags
Of branches, thorns
Holes in my heart

I clutched your words
Savored the flavor
Of unspoken desires
Watching the flicker
Of light dancing
In your eyes

Can the heart
Live again
Once buried and gagged
By the past?
To be young again
Fresh
Wrapped in silk
Within the cocoon
Of your body
The fragrance of the future
Heady between your legs

I waded through torrents
Falling from the sky
To stand beside you
In the tender moonlight
Without faltering
You took my shaking hand
To your lips
The sweetness on my skin
Turning over, again and again
Like sweetmeats
On my skin

I drank deeply
Past and future dissolve
Without leaving
Their reminiscences
And I fall into you
On bended knee
Creating a new religion
In a moment without a priest
Without a god or a prophet
To pontificate

What need have we
For religion
When the cathedral of cypress trees
Parts before our naked feet
The alabaster moon
Crashing through the gnarled branches
Finer than a thousand sparks
Of stained glass

You have my incense
On you
My baptism in you
My holy blessing
Surging with kisses and kisses
Over your olive skin

I put my sandals back on my feet
Grains of sand prick my toes
But I go naked after
To follow the moon's dance
Between the cypress
To hear a flute's seduction
Caress my hungry ears

Past and future
Have never touched me
When I carry your seed
Inside me
Having traversed
Beyond the veil
Held fast to the wind
By your breath
In my mouth

I take your heart beat
With me
As fluttering wings
Alight the tree tops
Swaying silently above

I never made a sound
In your arms
But the darkness
Gave way to the wedding candle
Dancing with ardor
Through my veils
This blood that now revives you
This bond tied tightly
Between us

You called the Light
Out of me
And I profess my completeness
Like a penitent
Walking silently in prayer
Through the swaying ages
Of cypress sentinels

Your breath in me
Still haunts my heart
Like a prayer
And my past
With you
Is ever painfully present

One of Your Beautiful Things

I could not ask
For tenderness
But for your hard hand
Taking possession
Of my weak body
How quickly I became yours
And my will
Deserted me
For the call of your bedsheets

Rumpled, strewn about a sunlit room
Your shirts
Your pants
The sweat in your underwear
I fell hard
For all you had
Hard
Is what I asked for
And my heart got what it deserved

Your scent
A spring morning
Beneath a fresh powder blue sky
I held you so fast
Between my legs
Your stubble cutting into
My soft pink cheek
I was oblivious
To the afternoon
Simply to become
One of your discarded garments

How foolish
In my youth
To think of becoming
One of your glorious adornments
Something to scatter
Across your floor
Like all your other beauties

Now gone
The afternoon in your light
Quickly rushing away
From the spring day
In your sweaty sheets
When fast we rose together
Descended to the depths
And I became
One of your beautiful things 

Icarus

Did you carry my kiss
With you?

A crown of light
Haloed your fine brow
Hard lines framing soft skin
To touch
I put my heart in
And watched my blood boil
Is there a way
Within you
To cool my wayward desire?

To love you
Is like touching a flower
Whose most beautiful petals
Fall to the ground
I take them up
One by one in my fingers
My lips poised
To catch you
As you shudder in release

How I long to be there
When you fall, like Roma fell
When you triumph
As presidents and kings triumph

But loss
Is the hard edge
Of your sword
Felt too swiftly
Before I garnished satisfaction

My eyes unwrapped you
Stripped you bare
In your glory
Like the midday sun
Captured in a glossy blue canvas
I tasted the air
Pretending it was your skin

Did you carry my embrace
With you?

You stand so proud
Commanding even the free birds
In the clouds
As you could command me
While your fear holds you back
Inflaming my desire

I reached too high
And fell back down
Into the mortal earth
Icarus became me
And I became a fool
Ensconced in my passions

The sun incinerated
My ambitious wings
Tempted my ego
For all the beautiful things
Far outside my grasp

Did you carry my mortality
With you?

I thought to become a god
So carried myself above
The mountains
Where the shifting sand
Could not burn me

A tender wind caressed me
Promising a deeper communion
I held fast to my vanity
A reflection in water
Enticing me to draw near
How hard the fall
Beneath the deceptive surface

Did you carry my ambition
With you?

I fell through the air
Cut to ribbons
On your airy tongue
Such things you say

To burn my feathers
Beyond repair
To bring my vanity
Crashing down
Heavens cannot hold me
The earth will not receive
My singed countenance

Without regret
I fall much further still
Back down into you
Of air
And my heart's desire

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

I Gathered A Pomegranate

A dramatic desert sunset on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

(For S )

Ripe pomegranate
You fall not easily
Into my starving hands
My waiting lips
Pressed tight against
Your husk
Your seeds staining
Your fresh gemstones

How quickly
The night falls
Light fading
The yew trees sheltering
A silky spring breeze

I waited beneath
For a single kiss
From your hunting mouth

Taste me so quickly
While the silver stars
Fall across a velvet canopy
While lapis blue night
Shatters over the distant mountains

Greedily you devour a pomegranate
Without care how the crimson
Stains your elegant mouth

Fountains offer their refreshment
Like flowers give up their pollen
And I wish to be like those
Industrious little bees
Dancing from flower to flower to flower

How industrious my wings
How sweet the virgin nectar

You turn away
Blushing so quickly
Even though the scent of me
Stings salty and open thighs

Banish dawn and receive night
The hour this bee takes flight
To gather his honey-sweet love
As the moon showers the earth
With regal splendor

Wait beneath the trees
Excited, your senses newly aroused
And I will swiftly gather
The offering of your body
With my lips

Still moon, sweetly glowing
I bask in it
As the pomegranate bursts
Too hungry was my heart
To gather the crimson jewels

Desolate now, my heart wanders
Could life possibly have sacrificed more?

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.  

Virgin

(for Brent, always)

I am not ashamed
To write a b-movie poem
In memory of the best gift
A man could ever give me

Let them squirm,
While the best part of me
Twitches in satisfaction

I had taken many men
When I first had you
You had had none

So jealous was your skin
Of what it had never tasted

Your mighty masculine thighs,
Your generous, yielding backside
Wanted me inside you
So jealous of my cock
Was your untouched rosebud,
Winking with lust
As the tip of my tongue
Praised you

Round buttock makes even the
Dazzling moon blush with envy
The heady scent of your perspiration
On my chest

To take, to have all to myself
This one first moment
When you became a man
With a man
Becoming a man all over again

I can make you wet
Before I make you wet
First with my tongue,
And then with my manhood
As I give up my seed
To your frantic grasp

I had your cherry rosebud
By my lips
My tongue could never get enough
But you had never been had before

How I tried to be a gentleman,
To delay the moment
Savor slowly your first time
In love with another man

Your heart inspired me
Your hands guided me,
Bringing my eager shaft
Home to its pink and wam
Heaven

Fast, faster, even faster still
You breathlessly held me tight
As I tried to hold back
From breaking you open so soon
As the night sky fell prey
To the hungry morning sun

Alive inside you
My manhood swells
Against your blushing treasure
You take it all
With lips teasing my lips
With teeth biting my salty neck

You left me as late as you could,
Though still too early,
Too starving for more

No matter how many times
I have you,
Taste you, warm my manhood
In your soft fire,
I will never have your innocence 
Again for the first time

You will never again
And only for me
Be a virgin.

Piety

Read this
Press my words
To your lips
That you might hold me
Even for a fleeting moment
With your wet breath
The heat of your life

I wish to take
Not more
Than I deserve
If only
For a fleeting hour
An urgent time
Well spent
How could you
Deny me?

Take me
All of my words
Inside you, softly
Your hot lips
Touch passages, descriptions
Vows of my fidelity
All departed
When love is spent

If the Gods allow
My hard won touches
To last but for a lifetime
I will relinquish
My regrets
My sins
My misgivings
And give all to you
When your lips
Use words
To create a prayer
From my name

Yesterday

The lonely "floating island" of the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah after nightfall/ Photo by the author

Solace you deserted me
When I saw his navel
Rising and falling softly
As he slept in disheveled sheets

How impossible to sleep
When my eyes are full
Of his muscular thighs
Spent from a night's
Passionate exertions

Fulfilled but never sated
Ever divine his naked
Ankles beckon

To travel with my exhausted eyes
The length of bronze loins,
Their sweat so cool to the touch
The throbbing in my mind
Far too much to resist

Companion for the night
I despair of letting you go
When the world reminds you
That yesterday I did not exist

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

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

Liberation Becomes Me

Detail from "As My Father's Eye Watches Me"/ Painting in progress by the author

Death cannot capture me nor decay contain me. 
Your cage, I am unbound, and my heart is not swallowed nor ensnared by folly. 

Sunset of fire, the vault of a starry sky waits beneath the surface. 
I eat the stars. 
I eat the stars and give birth to the full moon. 

A shudder passes between my legs when moon becomes my heartbeat. 
Deb deb. Deb deb. 
That is the sound my heart makes in your hand, 
When the last drops of my blood descend into the hungry earth.

As My Father's Eye Watches Me

"As My Father's Eye Watches Me", Oils & Sterling silver on canvas/ Painting in progress by the author

Flint, my heart embraces you. 
The place men fear to journey,
I have traversed and returned. 
Unscathed? 
Who can say, but for the shadows making love to my skin. 

Before I knew you I was a child. 
Freedom was ignorance born from the womb. 
On your sacrificial stone, 
Bent over backwards, 
My body became yours. 

Blood is a natural thing, 
Yet how unnatural to warm your bed, 
Taste your tongue, share your nights. 

My father's eye watches me, 
As I undress, as I strip, my bones exposed. 
Yet I clutched a golden eagle to my breast. 
I gathered precious jadestone 
And summoned the Smoking Mirror to avenge me. 

Now where are you? 
The jaguar, she has claimed your soul for me, 
And very slowly shall I savor it. 

Back to the beginning, I travel alone...
Back to my rebirth, as my father's eye watches me.

Narcissus

A mystical evening on the flooded Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/ Photo by the author

Where is rapture? 
Where is ruin? 
Down by the water's edge 
I take all of what you left behind. 
Hidden away, secreted in my heart, 
No one will ever find the piece of you I have cherished. 

Water you deceiver! 
My reflection enticed me, 
Before I was swallowed by the abyss, 
My vanity my conqueror. 

Still, I had you.
I married you to my thighs 
And will never regret having burned 
My Soul with your lust. 

Water, I am ready. 
Take me down and let me become a god.