Sometimes a rapid, sometimes a brook,
your voice sweeps me through the highs and lows-
and I drift along blissfully,
lifejacketed in an unsaid promise.
But my heart-it stays,
waiting patiently
to return the favor.

SHH -
That is the way they spell it.
One snake, two ladders.
That's life - so calm down, the sound seems to say
as it escapes your rounded lips.

SHH,
The grown-up cousin
of the sizzle -
the sensuous serpentine siren,
the sunken sinner without a ladder,
the hiss that emanates like a mating call
as our limbs entwine.

SHH.
As it emerges from your throat,
it lingers on your tongue just a little,
grazes your teeth just a little,
before landing decisively in my ears
like a slightly tempted ascetic.


SHH...may the ellipsis lead us to the ladders.
SHH...

Give me your silence.
Let me couple it with the sole lonely strain in your voice that haunts me
and forge a pair -
prospective parents
for the orphan love in your heart.

Why hate
when I can love you
with a vengeance?