tangled hierarchies

arlene

fevered breast

and I am stolen to courtyard

bare of foot, bereft of sleep

where only cool of marbled touch

may quell this burning flesh

supplanted on the ground.

a sound!

cool marble solace shattering

sound

who there?

none

but silence wafting

jasmine calm

across the mantle of night

to soothe in tangled branches

held to breast.

a face! your face!

as I in act of intimacy shattered

by your eyes am caught

in night blooming branches

of Love's desire

that You and I are One.