It Is More Than Sexual Poem by RIC BASTASA

if you come to my place
and ask for my name
i can give you
more than
what you ask for

not my name
and not even something
sexual
like making love all night long
inside
a scented room, hazy lights,
white linens, a candle
that burns its life
throughout the night
witnessing
the fleshy delights

you will be surprised
it is not the kind
of pleasure
i will give you
it is
something more than that

i once told you
about being together in an intimacy
that this world has
long denied to itself

we sit together
on a bench
facing the sea where
the sun is dying

we hold our hands
we feel
not the softness of our hands
or hear the palpitations
of our heart
like a song of love
or the drum beatings of lust

we try to see
how death goes
a sun slowly dying
spreading its last warm colors
to all the
creatures and contours of the world

we are witnessing
the gentleness of everything
those that end

and you and i
will be all too happy
to begin ourselves

on this basic truth