History

As I woke, my eyes came to rest  
on my lover’s penis lying limp and at ease.
I thought of its history with this man’s life.
They’d been together 34 years and he’d
handled it daily from the time his hands
began to explore his body.

It had known many women and now me as well.
I wondered what they were like,
what pleasure had they found in Shawn
as he moved through his youth and then adulthood.

In the morning light, his penis was a dark shadow,  
reminding me of the first time  
I was confronted with my father’s
cock as a sexual object.
My father’s expectation that I touch  
and handle it seemed so foreign.  

Then one Christmas eve,  
he came into my room smelling of alcohol  
and women’s perfume.
That was the first night he asked me to
kiss it and lick it “like a candy cane.”  

Our eyes never met that Christmas morning.