Whirling axis, spine of a spinning top. Love
between us all maybe and blush. Night we press
against us, secret we caress, word we write in steam
we breathe on glass. What we let fly from our fingers,
love between us. String we find to weave a world.
Valleys of lavender spilling for miles. All the stars
we can name. Lemon and willow, love between us.
A riffle of yellow. Shadow of sheets on the line.
Mast and sail, the days adrift, the summer all billow
and cream. Endless yes, love between us, and passing.
Droop of a flush pink bloom at noon. Love between us
a dappled garden shade, gate of vines. A house of hours
and only we’ve the key. Love between us the daylong rain.
Love between us glance and veil, the gauzy sleeve
of evening giving way. Grey mare in the mist, acres
of breeze and beachgrass, love between us chasm
and sea. Flicker or blaze. Weather of our making.
Wild heaven going, love between us. All the windfall
apples and the sweet crush of dusk. Love between us
the unfleshed light. Night a book we want to open, love
between us, the story we writhe inside. Box of letters
in a dusty attic, the sky’s ancient fires we extinguish
each day we don’t kiss. Static and stir, a spark, love
between us, the silver arc we make across the stark
and vast. Given one life to remember, love between us,
one lost language we’re given to taste. Each fading sentence
to erase, love between us. Or to pass between our tongues.
Robert Fanning is the author of Severance, Our Sudden Museum, American Prophet, and The Seed Thieves, as well as two chapbooks: Sheet Music and Old Bright Wheel. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, Gulf Coast, and other journals. He is a professor of English at Central Michigan University.
