Nocturnal Affair

Jan 27 entry:
I was born on the longest night of the year, and I wrote this one as a tribute to the night, who is my favorite alchemist.

...Here I am again
at the mouth of this strait
chasing the ocean in the dark.

***

The night, oh the night.
She opens me up like a roasted chestnut.
She peels away my layers
cracks me apart like a pistachio
and discards my words like the shells.
Sometimes she smashes me open like a coconut
other times she splits me in bleeding halves like a pomegranate.

She lets her tresses whisper against my skin
as she slips her bejeweled knife into my fugitive folds
and sweeps out the sun in one stroke.
She lays me out like a sacrifice
and cuts out the pattern of the stars
on my body with her blade
as she spreads cascading layers of honey
over my empty spaces.

She keeps what she cuts.
I give it gladly.
I'm one of her best customers
coming back like a gambler with nothing
who bets the house with each hand.

Sometimes she closes her door to me
and I have to sneak in through a window.
Sometimes she tries to throw me off
with the scent of magnolia and geraniums.
Sometimes she sends her breeze, her cool breath
like an escort to keep me from knocking down her door.
I take everything she gives me and still ask for more.

A hundred thousand jewels
spin--smitten constellations-against the dark sky of her body.
Against that blinding light I close my eyes and smile
as I reach past her star-clustered breast
for the pure darkness within