This poem was also published in Ian Young's Son of the Male Muse.
In the middle of the nightAwake without knowing it
like the earth on the first day of time
slowly we begin to move
sliding over one another wordlessly
side rolling over side
like strata of earth and stone,
temblors resonating
through bone riding on bone
warm in the forest of covers
your beard nuzzles my chest
a great bear roaming in darkness
dozing off between
each shift of position
asleep without knowing it
Now slick as rain on slate
we slip through one another's sweat
swallowing hard
as wet waves of kisses come
breaking over our heads
falling back against the bed
and penis sleek
and smooth as a seal's head
rises alert and trembling,
the ceiling recedes
like the sea sky into depths of night
We strain into the air
into the rarefied heights of the clouds
breath coming hard/roaring past our ears
beating like the praying wings of birds--
suddenly light
leaping free of the earth's tug
we burst open like morning glories
in the hour before daylight
four a.m.,
through the dust on the window
a grainy photo of the sky
and it's snowing
February 6, 1978
