Alex Stolis
an unwritten love poem
i
i mouth the words to your favorite song
wait for my thoughts to be discarded,
each one a leaf that brushes your arm
ii
what i see when I sleep:
the wind changes color as clouds disappear
into a familiar voice, shy and insistent
iii
I want to lay with you, quiet and still;
our lives, a murmur and hush
in a foreign land
iv
what i see when I sleep:
an island forged from the heat of us
where days are stretched into song
v
you are the color of spring
and i am winter
without your body next to mine
vi
you are a little bird whose fragile wings flutter like a poem
vii
it’s fall; when sunsets
are measured in bare limbs
and the names of ones we’ve lost
viii
your lips are enough, your breath
on my neck is enough; the sky is held
hostage by the wind
ix
a bird flies a straight line
to the horizon; my fingers touch
the perfect round of your breast
x
the stars are aloof, unapologetic;
you take me inside you, at last
night is quiet and still
xi
if you should ever leave our bed
i would forget how to dream
my heart would be air mixed with dust
xii
there is no end to shadow, the taste
of ash and the burn of silence:
flowers that bloom in your absence
xiii
what i see when I sleep:
the lake wraps its blue body around you
a bird slips his beak into a seam in the bark
xiv
hip to hip and bone against bone, our shadows
will dissolve into air
xv
we will lean into afternoon, let an ocean
of solitude wrap us together
xvi
you watch me sleep, the corner
of your eye, naked on my lips
xvii
you collapse the day, pack
it in a cardboard box
wear silence like a loose fitting dress
xviii
what I see when I sleep:
your breasts against my back,
the flesh of your thigh smooth and tan
xiv
you will never be far from me, never out of reach
two bodies together make a silent prayer
xx
you belong to the world
but i want you for myself
©2010 by Alex Stolis
