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...

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.

Why hate
when I can love you
with a vengeance?

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.