Dangerous and Noble Things

I  feel my boots

 

trying to leave the ground

 

I feel my heart

 

pumping hard.  I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.

I want to be light and frolicsome.

I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing,

 

as though I had wings.

 

--- Mary Oliver

 

Here Today

“We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand… and melting like a snowflake.”


--- Some Wise Someone Somewhere

I Would

I would

I would lay my head upon your heart and listen to your innermost thoughts,

     rub my beard against the flush of your face

     and kiss your cheekbones one at a time,

          two, three, four more

     until I found the softness of your mouth.


I would quiet your already still soul with my tongue

     drink down your smell, taste your venom
    
     and then surrender to your power
         
          in a show of my own.

               I would.


Then again --- maybe I would not.

     For fantasy alone fuels the fire of my desire

     and makes sin burn bright with holiness.

          For should is stronger than would,

          and even if you beckon

               I won't.


          But I want,

          so I would.


--- Darrell Arnold