After words (when bodies are at rest)

After words (when bodies are at rest)

I
afterwards - when bodies are at rest, 
his exciting curves at last still

the sweaty heaviness of sex
slippery on aching limbs,

find a truth in his foolery,
in his jests of ‘us’ - the unlikely

pairing of impassioned
intellect and dry lust.

II 
I’ll barter all I possess,
Each hard fought for bastion; give up to him
The iron key to my most hidden keep
Where I huddle, secure in my control,
And the world can’t get in.

Oh, yes, I’ll offer him everything,
Each jewel in my regalia, to acquire his soul.

For such a pearl, so beguiling
It transcends me, a fiddling price to pay.
He cannot be obtained for less.

III
Memories spin backwards to our first,
and briefest encounter, eyes meeting eyes
at the deli board of the grocers in our High Street.
His brown, twinkling orbs of promises
for a thousand nights and then, always, one more.
Oblivious of shopgirls, we fix up a drink.

Now, eighteen months are past, we’ve just shared
wine at dinner; raise a toast to our unlikely pairing.
Now, after dinner strolling through the park, the two of us
As a couple. What we paid to be here is as nothing.

And after words. The night.


D I Harrison
2013