A Small Poem about Tenderness
Tonight I would be the provider of solace, the caregiver,
in the face of all that had afflicted you this day.
But when you took me fully in your mouth, small,
yielding, your encompassing warmth and sweetness
without urgency or agenda, every door opened,
every hurt and hesitation was healed. I gave myself
up to you, and you gave me myself, whole and at peace.
Would you like to be inside? you asked, looking up
from your giving. And in a moment you were above me,
radiant, wordless, emptied of urgency and injury,
and this thoughtless joy rose in my bones, this joy
conceived in love, refracted in your eyes, easy as breath.
