Alone together just this side of dawn,
you asked the questions and I traced my answers
on your smoothed body parchment
with just enough paint and inspiration
to reach the end of a line before turning back,
ready to start all over again.
I wrote my hope on your shoulder blades,
feeling the muscles taut like dancing strings
and etched my fears on your lower back
until you opened your eyes like a princess
lifting a pair of gleaming gemstones
out of a secret drawer.
The prying sun brought back the same old doubts,
but by then the night had nothing more to say.
(from The God in the Box, Agàpe Publications, 2003)
S.C. Flynn 