photo by Alex Lear

the butterfly of love emerges from the cocoon of desire

            (for anyone & everyone who has experienced how love

            unpredictably comes when and wherever it does)

the husky electric dark of your tender laughter thrills

like the incendiary potency of lightening shards sharply,

silently illuminating the distant tops of far off mountains

the slight chill of rain aroma soft hangs hopefully within

the intimacy of our speeding car as your charcoal shaded irises dart

between desert road and the open emotions of my expressive face

outside’s swift night wind sings elegantly against the taunt drumskin

of my inner ears and as your slender brown hand, never quite landing,

briefly dances across the surprise of my thigh, i turn to face you

and even through seriously blurred eyes i can see the intensity

of your radiant glow, a heavy trembling indigo night flower heaving

petals fully open beneath the quiet undress of moonlight — thoroughly

moved i do not speak except to reveal the shiny of two happy tears

slow weaving sweetly through the salty tangle of my masculine beard

—kalamu ya salaam