TEMPO

[My] heart is restless until it rests in you. -Augustine

Within my restless Heart, I bed you,

Love. Without your relentless Spirit

I shrink, lonesome. Your encumbrance

trembles against mine but I do not

recede. Within my quaking frame

beats boundless blood-rushed song.

Thrushes sing just outside, and within

their song, I hear you, gentle, even after

you are gone. Within my sunlit chamber,

shadows mimic you, your heaving breast

beside me, and all your forehead’s dew.

Without you I forfeit senseless longing

and reside, instead, alongside

you in memory. Heartthrobs live

within me as mementos of our gentle dance. Without your fingertips to mine

(almost perfectly aligned) I’ve forgotten

touch. Without your whispers I fall deaf to lust.

Within our heartbeat caverns,

with synchronized song and sacred

rhyme, our Lovers’ hearts keep time.