Poem

Inside Out (pra Cah)

1.

Your hair tosses
in gusts of wind
with the white backs of leaves
and the hair of my limbs,
some storm must be rising.

Your hand tosses
the pen across the room,
frustrated, blocked, unable
to love well
at all
or what you write.

Your mind tosses
thoughts, memories, moments
back and forth,
adding and subtracting
into a null set.

Your heart tosses
its walls in and out,
in and out
and your hat into the ring
which you chase in the wind
all the way to Pamplona
to have it stampeded
inside out.

Your soul tosses
back and forth between lifetimes,
trying to catch glimpses
of you
and others and any fears
yet to discover you this lifetime.

Your body tosses
you and your lover back and forth
in fits of pleasure,
the unmoving need
to sweat against another,
the moving need
to be sweat against
by another.

2.

August, after midnight
your hotel room shakes like an earthquake. You are
awake, someone in the room next to yours
is making love and your room shakes. You hold
your breath and the stars go black one
by one and the moon conveniently
backs behind clouds. Your heart pounds
and your hotel room shakes, someone in the room
next to yours is making love. You are awake.
You hold your breath, the clock
is silent and your dreams forgotten.

August, after midnight, your dreams are
forgotten, your heart pounds and your hotel room
shakes. Passion, you think, is a moving
experience. You chuckle aloud. You are awake
and you make a mental note about the eternal
something or other of things. Your heart pounds
against your chest, the sheets, the mattress, echoing
in the bedsprings, and you breathe into your pillow
to vent exhaustion. The clock is silent
but you know daylight or the couple in the next room
will break soon, you hope. You are awake
and the room next to yours is soundless
except for the rush of laughter. You wonder
what the joke is, hear the words ‘inside out’
and more laughter. The clock is silent and your hotel room
begins to shake again. Someone in the room
above yours is making love. Your heart pounds, you hold
your breath and light the stars, caress the moon.