His sweat still beading on her back
he silently listed his symptoms.
Between winter & spring
a deepened growl, sharper whiskers.
Fever-favoring June
arrived full of reasons
for his tireless trace
of her familiar waist.
The escort & the escorted
are inseparable,
not identical, not unison.
Communicable.
Her insouciant mouth
had been slow & oval upon him.
Known agent.
Not circumspect.
And his days each the same now:
tail switching,
hoarding only recent,
transmissible memory.
Places damp with tears or pleasure
proved anonymity's opposite,
her dark whispers untouched
by evaporative effect.
Which proves the epidemic of passion.
That by fall, next year's heat
would already roil within him,
her swirl of curls
an irresistible braid of causes.
for Ann
14 JUL 2007