He & I

Warm palms on hill and valley stomach

rising upanddown with milky breath,

and fat pearls of drool like spiderweb at the corners

of his lips cooled by inhale, the knit of his brow smoothed

by sleep, his naked landscape revealed

soft and fleshy around the bones in there somewhere,

rising like mountains with the unashamed growl of mouth

and breathing in the night; and, given all of this—

I will step bravely into my body.