Why must we refuse what is divine
in each other?  
Why must we nail our lips shut
using our own teeth as though they were wooden pegs?

Instead, let us take each other in our mouths as though we were blind.  Savor and feel you in me and I…in you.   Taste and see.

Celebrate the salt of our labor, of my tears, of your love—
Recognize how silky desire is--
Know how thick loneliness is.  

Bring my hands to you and with your tongue trace their roughness, study the old wounds: read chapters of  my story.

Press the diamond of flesh at my hip to your lips and remember that once your own  hand rested there as I dreamed.   Feel how sharp that bone can be.

Now, let me chew on your despair. Wear it thin, spit out.

Let me navigate with this same mouth those parts of your body that you command to feel  when your heart can not.

We can be good and not be hungry.

We can swallow each other tonight, fall asleep full and satisfied like favored guests at a banquet, then sit down at the table again, tomorrow.


By:  Evelyn Augusto
        2017