Mariana

              I

Two continents apart

we met on a third 

      By chance. 

I snuck in front  

    of her in the airline

queue and gave 

   her my most sheepish

                smile. 

forgive my impatience 

    my eyes said. and she

obliged 

   by graceful ignorance.

I thought I would 

   never see that 

boyishly beautiful 

  face again.

Then, in wet Malay air
 we found ourselves
outside sharing a
           cigarette.

A car ride later, 

 against the backdrop of tall palms 

her asymmetric earrings only

 set off by her loose 

slacks, soft leather brogues and the tattoo

    - of an arrow- 

         on her left arm.

Something inside me came alive.  

               II

 Her eyes: dark cherry brown.

 fuzzy milk

        chocolate hair. 

She was full. All cream

               all richness.

               III

We arrived. Do you have a partner?
   she or I

asked,
   I don't remember. But I 

answered: "No, but I do go both 

ways." "So do I."

          An affirmation.

               IV

Over days, she shared her
  cigarettes with me 

The burn in my throat
  only reflecting 

 how I burnt for her.

She, so sensitive in her

    sacred,
     wicker constitution.

                V

One dark night (The Godess
only knows how we got there, bless her)

          we lie on a bed...

   desire tangible in the air.

Like smog.
my head against
        the pillow, hers at the end
of the bed. She leant (or was it leapt?) forward
 and kissed me.

      Cherub lips

all petals 
     and wet tongue on

peach down.

               VI

Touching her was

   touching a
 white
          flame. 

Which only burnt

brighter when

 I bathed her 

lathery hands 

slipping over

 breasts naturally onto
              the unashamed 

                   convexity of hips,
              soapily and gently
   grazing her crevice.

               VII

Seeing her naked was 

   an apparition. 

Tall
        broad
                 all incurvate.

 I burnt more.

The image

of her naked body

         from behind
               smoldered

    into my mind.

             VIII

Hot, Dewey and Fast:

 we lit each other up

at our apexes.
       all stone churning friction against stone
                 pestle and pestle at ends 

                 and lips brushing and buds pulsating

Reverberating.

Legs slit, scoring and intersecting 

         incising until our silken

                  liquids were one. 

    Then,

I ate - there is no other way to put it - 

   tenderly, greedily, at 

      her Corsage orchid. 

So vigorously, with such hunger,
                                       such thirst, that

At times I almost couldn’t bbbbreathe. 

She pulsed
      under me

        (into me.) 

Legs spread wide

     with my full 

         bristling bulb 

at her juncture

   she opened her 

  lungs and 

                   sang

                the 

                         song 

that brought her home. 

               IX

it was my turn. 

   Oh Goddess.
 she was soft.
  so hard.

in drunken splendour

it was everything.

       it was nothing but

the flame burning bright.

               X

She was.
               Is. 

Full woman. 

                    Mariana.