Fear of Love   

You cover me in my grey chair with a red blanket
And I sink into a fitful sleep

I dream of you
You’re a snake in my bed

I sense you nearing
Coming right for me
I go fetal
Cover my breasts with my blanket

I’m scared to touch you
Scared to be touched by you
Scared of how you will feel

But you weave your way around my leg
And teach me to like your cold skin
And to joy in the speed with which you warm to me

Your scales feel ruff against my thigh
And with your slither from my hip to my elbow to my shoulder
I relax.

Your sssssssshhhhhhhhhh in my ear
Is enough to quiet the city of thoughts in my mind
Turn down the bebop

I close my eyes
Shut the night lights off

Your ssssssssshhhhhhhhhh on my neck
As you shake your rattle over my navel
Wakes my skin in such a way that I feel not only your skin
But my own
Alive again

And the fine hairs that populate the landscape of my body
Rise up to you
In the pregnant moment before you swallow me whole

 

© 2007 Corine Demas