love in the afternoon

     from my Snow White poems
love in the afternoon

she lay in shade, sun-draped shifting shade in leaf-green light, maple canopy bent under weight of season and heft and storm, maple wind pushing grass in waves ankle deep and green again, grass blown under clouds, under trees, washing up along the box of wood and glass and girl.

her face was moon-light, distant white, polished perfect in afternoons,
snow-washed, snow-white, moon on water in December, shimmer-soft and ageless, blood lips almost open, mouth forever almost open, about to speak in sleep, speak dreams and move lips and bring color to that sheer face, color for black hair poured along cheeks and throat, one wisp, another, brushed over eyes, errant over eyes and black as night.

his shadow stretched slant in the afternoon, lengthened his desire, blurred his boundaries, followed his hand on the glass, palm to glass, odd dance under maple shade, her face and those lips, his hand on the glass, his heart as wild as hers was not, breath pulled by wind, words that wanted breath that would not come, words he did not know for a girl who could not hear.