*

I come to you as the unknown.

Like a shadow forming, dark and bright.

I am a man, smelling of musk.

I appear bright, eager to please.

Perhaps gentle, perhaps not.

I come to your flower as naturally as day follows day.

I reach out.

A risk.

Tentative at first, then strong.

I am drawn to you as a moth to flame

and in your fire I want to burn!

Come to me, Seabird, hold your wings against me.

Come to me, Seabird, turn your wings toward me.

In my oyster dreams

I am like a deep sea diver finding a sea conch.

In my oyster dreams I want to open you and drip your sea salts

all over me.

I want to open you and smell you like the sea

I want to smell you like a sunday morning that may never come again.

with a smell that goes beyond spirituality.

And God put that smell there because he knew it was good.

I want to kiss you like the sea kisses the shore.

I want to surround you like a warm bath.

I want to make my voice soft, soothing, like a lullaby

so I may talk to you in low tones

and gaze forever into bright clear eyes -- Like a supplicant!

I want to be like a tiny explorer making his way along your map

toward the stars of your heavens,

toward the waters of your havens.

I want to feel your body rise to my touch

with hope and expectation.

I want to feel you turn suddenly soft,

inviting me.

Then I want to enter you

with my canoe.

Then

I want to feel you turn suddenly hard

ready to burst!

as I release myself into your currents

knowing full well your rivers will take

me to our ocean.

*