red beard
I feared never
to touch something as soft as that roughness
as cool as the heat of your breath,
as eagle eyes through glasses looking
down on me when I begged you to ride me
and you did it like the Mississippi you
did it just like jesus walking on water,
sailing on waters of come and leave and
stay and good-god and goddamnment in our bed,
the bed that will always be ours after
you stained it with the knowledge of you
after you cracked yourself like a paradise
fruit all over it, and I cannot get the stain out.
In every fiber, every little thread,
you are still there,
erasing old lovers and making way for newer loves