at three and one time only
               
                
you've such a slender wrist dawn
i can brace it enclose it encircle it my
thumb opposes its fingers and meets them
see, middle ring index even the little one.
                
you've such a mauvemelt voice dawn
i can stir it recall it imagine it or
furrow it into a sunlakegleam
with a quip or a pun.
                
you've such a shiny gown of black dawn
i can lift it let go of it twist it or tuck it
behind your bonsai ear
sweep across its curtain, my hand a key
of geese against your rising sun.
                
not quite the northbound key, maybe
for your eastborn secrets dawn
but i do talk dusklakeloud and i do
handsomely show
against you.
                
you've such an erotic arch dawn
like the one in st. louis i went to see
at three and one time only.
to enter you to cross the sacred line of you
to make that special find of you
or hang around you
watch you race in soft reflections
suffuse me, run your course through me
                
in turn
                
to warm you smoothen you cherish you
obey all physical laws with you
while stirring you
with that special gift of unjaded fingers
                
to so accompany the stars whose sound-off
we await some 19 years on average
stars who measure our time
heedlessly
boiling off their hot coronas
like there's no tomorrow.
                
the stars are astride abright
even in the lightstained skies
singing mightily if off-key (doppler shift)
heard only faintly
in st. louis at three, somewhat crisper
in santa fe at two.
                
nonetheless these sunken drunken stars
potluck their choicest stories
for our dim sung dinners
b.y.o.ing light as always
glistening, glowing, gliding blackbodies
cascading like pointilistic water,
smoothening the bone within you
smoothening the bone within st. louis
our ornery mothers, these stars, steady and explosive
corrosive stars crosseyed under our checkered flags
like the surly bulls at the floodlit mesquite rodeos
the checker waves them in
with stationary tiles
in standing waves of liquid artificial life
they file in under no protest
like cattle unwavering
in their staunch mute opposition.
                
embarrassed by our stars' stubborn drinking
we look the other way, referring to their fiery belching
as twinkling.
                
given such brouhaha, how am i to petition these stars
for a discrete dispensation from gentle protocol
and a special spicy permission
to befriend your stationary pores
all of them
without limitations and exclusions
a heartrending heartpounding admission.
                
what sweet ache it would be
to cross underneath your arch, maybe
-- stars permitting
to enter you, yes
-- stars twinkling
to cross your sacred line, perhaps
-- stars flying
with my own.
                
arrest that thought.
perish its consequences.
                
there is a wonderful reason for the protocol
to hold.  it's a green day where i write from
i breathe in
the smell of morning roses and afternoon lumber
though she's not here to remind me
i stand so reminded
on my wobbly own.
                
you're such a star, marek...
                
oh dawn
i did inhale you exhale you eclipse you
in a christening hug
i did not write these inflammatory words
to mock.  this is not
enough of a communion for us two
i know.
                
one of these days one
of these...
like canadian geese
only slightly off course
we shall go, take the hajj
to st. louis
at three and one time only
to court and spark
the bone within st. louis
with our shared birthday
thirteen years slender
no match for any cosmic wristhold
and
for a moment of peace and infinity of
commitment glimpsed forever thataway
though here unknown in this space
beneath the bone we shall glimpse
for a moment of good
for unbordered yet bounded love
(says stephen hawking)
for euphoric ether in volume sold
to educational institutions at a discount
for once that instant
for ever and ever and ever
(okay, okay -- for 19 raised to the 31st power)
                
and there we will be told
by the steering committee
and we will believe them
                
welcome home
                
and we will properly welcome
our home.

Marek Lugowski
                
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