10.19.2022

our flesh touches like tiny bonfires

At first, not even a sheet on me, 
anything at all is painful, a plate of 
lead laid down on the nerves, I lie there 
and slowly I cool off—hot, 
warm, cool, cold, icy, till the 
skin all over my body is ice 
except at the places where our flesh touches 
like tiny bonfires. Between the door 
and its frame, and between the transom and its frame, 
the hall-light burns in straight lines 
which cast up beams on the ceiling like a headless 
figure flinging up her arms for joy. 
In the mirror, the angles of our room seem calm, 
it is the hour when we can see that the angle itself is blessed, 
I gaze, in the mirror, at the smokey bulbs 
of the chandelier, I feel I could be 
looking at my ovaries, it is 
clear that everything I see is real 
and good. We have come to the end of questions, 
you move your palm along my face 
over and over, over and over, as if 
putting the finishing touches on, before 
sending me down to be born. But I don't 
want to be born, I want to stay here 
with you. 
 
[Sharon Olds {1942- } 'After Making Love in Winter', from Wellspring]

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