I Feel Your Lips Smile

I feel your lips smile softly in the dark

The quiet swells; an ocean without form

I rest my head where retrospect is warm

A summer’s eve as autumn’s stance grows stark

The surge of centuries claims one more day

October sheds her final farewell leaf

Her shoulders droop; fall’s lithesome dance is brief

And leaf by leaf her garment drifts away

The darkness cannot shield the thought of you

A thousand midnights cannot seal your sigh

I crawl to kiss October’s feet good-bye

She fades across a field of frosted dew

The echo of her past rides on the breeze

I hold it fast in ageless memories

***

Is there an antidote for loneliness?

And is it found within a crowded crowd?

Where images are wearying and loud?

The night is kinder in its wantonness

I lean into its still, somber embrace

Its solace is both friend and enemy

Exposing both the best and worst of me

I feel your lips smile, soft against my face

A soul-mate comprehends unuttered thought

Spilling into night’s deep and onyx hole

As we exchange the language of the soul

Not chained in word or shared in ink-formed jot

But rendered to each other part by part

As we converse in whispers of the heart

***

The by and by of summer’s twilight waits

Even for deviant poets such as us

The noise of plebeian masses fume and fuss

October’s farewell tolls and dissipates

As up into the froth of sequined air

The ebb and flow of moments coalesce

We tremble; the portend of love’s caress

Is almost more than you and I can bear

The hour plods toward November’s dawn

We cannot halt its winnowing intent

How soon, how soon another year is spent

As tears of autumn deck the street and lawn

Ah, this is life; so much of love to learn

I feel your lips smile; I smile in return

© Janet Martin