What But Tears? 2010 Poem by Roy William Gotaas

When you lie at night in the arms of a ghost,
What but tears can you give?

But when I lie in your arms,
- - - When you touch me,
When I’m inside you,
Taste you, breathe your scent,
When you stay tight against me,
Clamped around me
Because that’s where you want to be - - -
Then I’m home:
You’re my home, my happiness.
There’s nothing and nowhere else I want - - -
Only more moments in which to live like this.

Heaven before death and I shall love you
Till the end of my last breath.
There is more than love - - wordlessly more - - -
Je t’adore, je t’adore.