First Lessons Poem by Arshad Sardar

The first love is ‘me’.
Me looks at ‘me’ with infinite patience.
Infinite.
Naked and alone.
See that colour of the skin
Touch it. Kiss it.
(Am learning to kiss myself)
Naked and alone.
Eyes, mouth, nipples, limbs, nails
Touch them. Feel them. Kiss them.
Hair, sweat, skin smooth and rough.
Muscles taut and loose.
And to feel this nakedness
in my aloneness. My unflinching,
un-judgemental gaze at me.

For these I take to my lover
offer her my worship.
Kissing, licking, breathing
every cell of her being.
That’s how hungry I am.

The deeper I learn to love me,
The deeper I fill her.
: a lesson learnt late/still working at.)
But learnt well.

Any other way is tears
and games. Misery repeated
ad infinitum.

(a response to Waiting by R.)