To Know Him Is To Love Him Poem by Gloria g. Murray

YOU'RE OUR MAN
(for Leonard Cohen)

you were not handsome—
craggy lines on a face so young
tangled dark hair framing it
and a husky voice
stroking inside a woman's ear
with your tongue

rhymes so slanted—as if you
couldn't quite get it right
yet rhythm caressing every inch
of her with those long, aching fingers

oh, Leonard, so slim, with a guitar
hanging over your bony shoulder
shirt open to show
the curly dark hairs on your chest

you were pure sex…teasing
a woman's body to lie against your naked one
and when you left your Marianne, Suzanne…
and all the others
you did it with such finesse