"the kiss" by Rik Lina
THE FRIENDSHIP INSIDE US
Why the mouth? Why is it the mouth
we put to mouth at the final moments?
Why not the famous groin?
Because the groin is far away.
The mouth is close up against the spirit.
We couple desperately all night
before setting out for years in prison.
But that is the body’s goodbye.
We kiss the person we love last thing
before the coffin is shut,
because it is our being
touching the unknown.
A kiss is the frontier in us.
It is where the courting
becomes the courtship,
where the dancing ends
and the dance begins.
The mouth is our chief access
to the intimacy in which she made reside.
Her mouth is the porch
of the brain.
The forecourt of the heart.
The way to the mystery enthroned.
Where we meet momentarily
amid the seraphim and the powers.
Jack Gilbert
Posted over on Poet Island Press
No comments:
Post a Comment