We met before we knew
We knew before we met:
What you want you don’t get
Not now, not later, not yet
Like your cool view of others
No one wants to play your brother
Touching your cropped black hair
Slender as air
Your pale lucid eye
So damp dry
Why did we do this, why?
Tuck our hands inside our guts, lie
Next to each other, fully clothed
Letting our audience perfect their pose
No, I can’t not remember you
Your practiced sly beatitude
The curled lips, keen nose
My nightly pictures of love’s close
Best to know what you won’t
I still love you and what you don’t:
That affection you so fear
Might get its chance, might still appear
