Clean Sheet to Commit Adultery
for G.M.

I can write erotic about you, you see
you'll see, you've seen already

what's now left for me to see also
where ink will flow or where I'll go

don't know what I am being bitten by
what is biting me

I feel like a dog with flees
are these mosquitoes or what
in love with me, after my blood

siphoning it out or out to get inside my veins
inside the arteries, these tiny red rivers

go for a swim or for a ride
get off at some bend or other
or sail over what is like a water fall

don't know what is bugging me
has distracted me
from writing erotic about you as I wanted to
as I know I can

my sheet entirely covered or almost
emoting about whatever it is bugging me
biting me, thwarting, undermining adultery
I got onto this clean sheet to commit

want a bit of it- of you still
few white areas remaining still
to squeeze ink into

squeezed into what small space
in this life together
for what purpose, to what end
out of the vastness
of the whole wide world

where we were once - before May in Cuba
into the tininess of acquaintance,
acceptance

soul mates you call us
united by Bergman, by English
in heavenly eyes

not sex, not romance
but what plucked us out
to unite, to make a union

what ropes, what chains join us
unable to break apart
or pull apart ever again

mystery of relationship to explore
friendship to establish and explore
ocean of it, its depths

ship like this even
has rough waves to go over
has its conflicts

even friends break up and make up
have ups and downs

did not tell you, I turned the page
changed the sheet,

needed another one
to dirty or to make clean
with love of you
with loving you

this sheet running out also
volcano to erupt, dynamite to set off
in seconds or doves to release

end a ceremony, a marriage of sorts

is what we have- what we are
not one of seven sacraments
pillars of church and sky


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
4:21 p.m. 16.08.10