Rain

I want you to invade my body
Like a thousand terra cotta soldiers
Humming past a clearing in the woods

Where the light breaks softly,
So softly
A photograph wouldn’t do it any justice
Unless,
In one-sixteenth of a second
It could capture
The surprise in your eyes
when you smile

Comfortable on an eye-level stool
I would stare back
At that photograph
Of ageless blue eyes
Dusk until dawn
By radiator twilight and daytime fan
And even past my rushed lunch
Where I call you from speed-dial,
And forget that you’re napping.

I wouldn’t chase you anymore
And dust would settle on the boughs of love
Now damp and hardened
From my Still
Like those stalactites
You showed me in National Geographic
The other day
When I burnt my hand on the hot water faucet

You wrapped it in your brown sweater
That you said was fully cashmere
But was really wool
And the back of your head was shaped like a cantaloupe
As you turned around
To hide your smile,
So unsuccessfully
That it echoed through the air for days
Noiselessly present like the death of a cricket or
The smell after the rain

Oh shine the light!
Invade on