Poetry

Intimacy (noun):

1. The tender things that occur between individuals being close.

*often used euphemistically

2. Each touch to the nape of the neck or thumb to the base of the ear
that is applied with care, much the same as a person’s mother
in pressing a small black spider against a wall.

*and feeling the spider press back through the white napkin

3. Alternative to kissing, just two mouths resting on one another;
pressed together like two musty caves, a breeze inside slowly blowing
back and then forth again.

*whistling through the teeth

4. Each time a strand of hair happens across one's mouth
and the tongue reaches out to it, pulling it down like a dark well
swallowing a loose kite.

*followed by a shallow cough like a sleeping kitten

5. State of lying still like two creased pieces of art covered in a film
of soft white from a street lamp, like from the flashlight held
by a burglar peering through a museum window.

*neither party is afraid to sleep

**Because sleep is the water
turning the powder to concrete.