izzy

I’m thinking about Plato’s ideas about love
this thin, pale body curling round itself
thinking about intertwining DNA twirls and swan necks
about the quest to find and melt into another half

I’m imagining what I’d look like if I was literally half a person
if we were all split right down the middle,
if when we coupled we looked like circus freaks
like hermaphrodite in full makeup

would you get together with your other half and look in the mirror
and be like ‘ah! there it is! my face is complete!’
or would you learn to love that groove
where your noses don’t quite properly click?

*

sarah

My love in his dizzying lighthouse
Hung unsteady in the gloom
Pouring its beam into the crowding fog
Gazing into my face like a stormy coastline
Searching for lost sailors in my smile
His mind ever at sea
My lover’s speech is garbed in gumboots and sou’wester
His kisses roll and break across my cresting spine
My love stands steady in the maelstrom
One hand on the railing, the other on the lamp
Sleepless and unblinking
To guide me safely home

*