Love's Joyful Proxy

How beautiful were the motions of your joyful proxy last night! I grasped her as if dying, and when she sensed my fear, she showed a sweet tenderness. She was so like you!

Minutes later, the room was silent but for the sounds of two mammals satisfying ancient hunger, each giving flesh and spirit at alter of the other. When we finished our animal rituals, we curled into each other’s heat, and I dreamed that her breathing was you next to me.

She asked about your photo on my bed stand and after hearing your story, she cried softly on my chest. Then she kissed my lips and bowed over me, sucking gently on the portion of me once christened only to you before your death. As you must know, that portion has since been shared by many.

She knew I imagined you there as my fingers slid through her hair. She must have known my thoughts as I placed my hand across her warm cheek. She put her hand on mine so I would feel where my hard flesh met her lips. As your image flashed behind my closed eyes, she hummed softly in an alto voice, then swallowed whole the lust that flowed from my memory of you.

By morning she was a stranger, still lovely but absent of you.
As I kissed her lips, now empty of your spirit, I felt your eyes smiling from the window’s morning light.