Submissions by Baldwin

She supply stood , arch'd back against the wall
with challenge and defiance and hard longing in her eyes,
and hair all darkly storming down her face, her neck,
a swirling stream all silking invitation,
one shoulder bare and glistening, a beacon to his gaze.

Her breath caught up inside a gasp, a sigh surprised,
to find him suddenly so near, to see him
half in shadow half in light,
adopting feral stance, himself amazed at how
the sight and scent of her had loosed his mind
had made him swallow hard
to batter down, to stand against ...

I shall pretend within this rough abandonment
that we never spoke,
never sent each other photographs,
never spent the evening hours entwined by telephone
sharing all the deeper secrets of our histories,
never saw our crossing path as miracle and mystery,
never mentioned love,
and never stood amazed at how
again and then again
at each unveiling of the stages of our pasts
we came to know that if we met
we’d fit together well
like the proverbed hand and glove,
never felt our hearts rise up
like morning mist to...