IT IS WORTH HAVING
She writes about love
about making love the animal way
to which my body lifts
almost rears on hind legs,
my want so strong
it leaves me weak in the knees:
myself to give someone his own,
breathe the breath that warms,
to lie body-to-body close, have hands
the lips travel my spine, shape shoulders
hold breasts, curve the belly
and round my bones
inside me the cry echoes
the wild scream once let out
while high on a mountain
meadow’s sweet grasses, I want
that soaring again
an untethered flight
into the sun glow
open myself to the arrival
where he/I will see each other
remembering the desire, the rush
toward that practiced fullness
again
and again
—from Rattle #14, Winter 2000
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Bettina T. Barrett: “Lately I’ve been hiking the trails here once a week, to feel the earth solid beneath my feet, to let my thoughts soar wherever they will, and to inhale all the green growing alive. Soothes me for a little while.” (web)
