Acquaintance

Dry lips meet lipstick, take

taste first, fruit perhaps, or

subtle perfume as mouth

acquaints mouth, all the senses

bemusled, bumfuddled,

shaken awake by the

first tiny tip of tongue

teasing teeth to open,

wrestle a while, get to

know each other properly.

Do we dream of freedom or desire?

In the dream there were only couples

and me—I’ve no idea why—and the

woman I was paired with was nervous,

unsure of her attractiveness, why she  was

doing this, who she was or

wanted to be, so we only

shared a kiss, her tongue

tentatively exploring freedom.

Later in the dream, across a

crowded bar, our eyes met, hers now

demanding that I ignore the alarm,

sleep longer, dream deeper,

forget her previous hesitancy and

just take her.