To Kiss Your Lips To Say I Love You Poem by RIC BASTASA

you are in bed waiting for me
transparent cloth tempting and
you close your eyes you signal
my body that you are ready for
this old time ritual of sweet sweat
surrender and worship of the
deepest sighs of the marrows.

somewhere inside my heart is
this thirst unsatisfied, this insatiability
of a bulging rock, the towering cliffs
unreachable by your giving in hands.

to kiss your lips, to touch your body
once more, to say i love you, all these
i cannot anymore do, i leave no note.
i find no justification to explain this
art of leaving, the intricate threads
of goodbye, the feared art of the
scissors, cutting and then so clearly
there is no blood, just air moved and
hearts skillfully split into two, painlessly.