i carry a yearning i cannot bear alone in the dark—

You gleam as you lie back breathing like something taken from water, a sea creature, except for your two human legs which tremble and open into the dark country I keep dreaming of. How shall I touch you unless it is everywhere? I begin here and there, finding you, the heart within you, and the animal, and the voice; I ask over and over for your whereabouts, trekking wherever you take me, the boughs of your body leading deeper into the trees, over the white fields, the rivers of bone, the shouting, the answering, the rousing, great run toward the interior, the unseen, the unknowable center. — mary oliver

the back of her knee: a blessed territory, i keep my wishes there.