Tonight
I will not make love to you.

Tonight,
I will push you away
And feel the tension tug
At the space between us.

I will keep you
An arm’s length away
And feel your spider senses explode
As you try to fill the distance between us
With your tortured breathing.

I will tease the cracks
On your skinned knees
With an unfeeling shrug
And make your Adam’s apple shudder
As I find a new funny bone
In the depression between your clavicles
With my restraint.

I will cup your rib cage
With unexplained explanations.
Around your hips
Wrap my intolerable excuses.
And with my fanatic resolve
Heap live coals between
Those sacred spaces
Of your being.

Tonight
I will not make love to you.