Lake-wet and found forgiving,
patch-work body and pasture-raised pleasure,
rolling in the grass and basking in
bare-skinned clarity.
They were right, you are a fairy.

Water filled to the brim, may I drink from your fountain,
may I toss my pennies in,
and is a wish like a prayer,
or should I save my change for rain?
Filling puddles like copper lakes,
putting a snake in for Heaven's sake,
splitting my own rib and calling it mate.

When I first saw you it was just your reflection,
you caught my attention, doubling your beauty with your liquid presence.
I asked if I could come in and take a dip in your drip,
you nymphaeum of bliss,
and you said "Yes, yes but not yet.",
like the breath we share before a kiss,
like the moment before sunset,
like the bed unmade around our shapes,
like the ripples our forms in this pool radiate.

I must grow gills because you took the breath right out of my lungs.

Love me, Pisces, Venus smiles for us.

A fox sits in the forest at the foot of my house.
Each morning
she intertwines with the sunrise, materialising through graceful leaps
It leaves me breathless;
all I can do is bathe in awe.

One morning I extend my hand
and she engulfs me, gracefully
I become whole again. We dash through trees
and fields and meadows

She dances, and leads me gently to the tips of the earth
Her breath resounds against hillsides, and as I fall
I catch almost a glimmer of
light-dipped roses, and golden daffodils.

I wanted the world to see through my eyes
I desperately longed to share the beauty I'd seen
But how could I hope to ever capture such sights in writing?
The way love takes your breath away,
How could I share the feeling without cliche?
In what way could I hope alone to share the feeling of ecstasy that comes from redamancy?

I look into the eyes of those who hear my words
Do they feel it?
My heart, can they hear it?
Do they see love in all her glory?
And I see it, the glimmer of excitement
The anticipation and nerves,
How they squirm and giggle
And in that moment I know
My heart has reached them

She painted words that flew like Eros' golden arrows
Straight through the hearts of all they reached
Timeless ethereal words of feeling
That no other could capture in such brilliance
A tenth muse proclaimed by Plato
How could one write such words of passion and  romance
Without some blessing from the gods above?
Had Apollo himself whispered in her ear all the ways beauty could be described?
How a gentle touch can be painted in song?
How strong were the blessing of Aphrodite,
To burn such deep emotions into the heart of the poet

Love had guided Sappho through life and so it guided her out
Her heart leapt far across the sea
So far and yet for once
They could not reach the one she wanted
And as she fell from the seaside cliff
Her essence remained
Within the words she wrote
Within the notes the lyre played
Sappho remained, heart shining through
Perpetually enlightening the world
With her pulchritudinous words of love

my cold dead heart was made
absolutely empty
so,
they tell me i can
take a knife to it

though

it would be,
for me,
easier
to face myself

with my soul
having been stained

this thing we
choose
to call beautiful

he

takes his time and
stirs up still things
hidden inside
     to
exhaust the mind

then

settles down and
infests, but

come o beloveds of
darkness and decay

for day
    is near

i frequently
weep in silence -
for those i treat well

are the ones who most of all
seek yet to harm me
and label me crazy

because of this
i am lost
and confused

and you,
     i want
               you to suffer
the insanity -

in myself i am aware of this

but the one i call ‘you’ is simply
                  myself
    and i find that i
          am the cause
                 of my
insanity

i lay at night
wondering what it might be like
to see your eyes when you come undone
and he's in your thighs

and then i remember
how i surrendered that luxury
when i let go of my heart

what a startle it was
when i looked up and found that i was not alone
before my eyes you denounced my lies
and pleaded with my dying soul

but that wasn't nearly enough