'They who are infatuated with lust fall back into the stream
        as a spider on its self-spun web'.
        -- Bede Griffiths, Universal Wisdom


        Last night we offered whispered chants in that ritual
        undressing

        of how we met. Everything has significance.
        That is what you said.

        But it wasn't what you said. It was more how you
        held me that time

        we discovered the naturalness
        of unnatural sex

        and you may remember
        it wasn't as if we hadn't explored

        our bodies like this before
        and it wasn't as if we wanted to pretend

        the moon
        is spotless or the sun opposes what is hidden

        simply because icons are smoothed
        softly into stone.

        We know water washes
        what doesn't dissolve until the next day

        when it happens again. We keep falling
        back

        to front and slippery with sweat
        you saw my face really was yours.

Copyright © Alison Eastley, 2004. All Rights Reserved.