"The bed is kind of narrow but my arms are open wide"*

We stand starved on the edge of wounds
listening to a dolce rhapsody in our embrace.
A strange affinity
is weaving between the melodies of our skins.
We are afraid to give in
& afraid not to
so we do not move.
We are frozen in a most comfortable compromise -
you floating on the tides of my breath
& I lost in your tactile palace of Rapunzel hair.
Sleep, my precious one. Sleep beside me.
Do not be afraid.

From the corner of morning
I watch you vanish safely like a midwinter breath -
lingering a moment, then gone.

- Barry Kapke, 1979
Berkeley, CA

(* - A line from the song "I Tried To Leave You," by Leonard Cohen.