in response to Kim Addonizio’s ‘For Desire’
give me his dark curls, his whites & browns & coppers

give me the sweetest porridge & the bitter olives

that take the longest to cure

give me the lover who feeds me cumquat

takes the bitten fruit i would not swallow fully

darts his tongue out to suck its pulp whole.

woo me in the middle of a grand room

with a wood-burning fire only someone

with callous hands could tame.

i do not want ambivalent greetings

but the one who opens his arms at the driveway

carves out a way for me to his childhood stories

leans his forehead down to my squatted thighs

& listens to my broken red-flushed poetry.

i do not want to be ravaged anymore

chased after on the dark streets

wolfed down by a blue-suited devil

who would not learn my name.

give me the warmth of someone who savours

who would not kiss me until i ask them to

who would untie my ruminations

with the same hands that worship

banksias & bushy yates at this land’s feet.

i want the lover who would kiss my knees

& ask me which heavens i come from,

who is light-filled, standing in a room unyielding

despite my storm, my soft fire, a gush of

waterfalls down a rapid stream.

i want his strong arms & the narrow girth of his body

pressing against me on a bed where

he asks first where i want to be touched.

i want to say: everywhere. i want to

sit on his lap & have an endless conversation

i want to live for love until i am brimming to the rim

all i could do is pour. i want to wait after a long day

for his truck to arrive & stand before him

wearing just my giant pink shirt

look him in the eyes then kneel at his feet

& tell him just how fucking good he looks.