X is

Through elbows and exotic scents

we wade through local tongues

and the din of the bazaar.

Lacquered fingernails reach down

she feeds me a piece of coconut.

Her scarf, trailing from her hair

captures the summer nightlights of Tehran

***

In a cold Toronto January

I try to furnish a renovated basement

with my life packed in two suitcases.

She laughs, and next thing I know

I am waking up in a queen size mattress

to the sizzle of bacon and clatter of cutlery.

***

Behind a bar in downtown Ottawa
she waves sparklers, short white dress
illuminated beneath golden trails

that appear in the pictures I take.

Someone congratulates me.

She looks my way, her eyes light up.

***

We lock glances like we've met before.

Beyond the doorstep of words
 we speak the tongue of lips.

Her eyes smile into mine.

  It's like looking at my own reflection.

It's too fast. And it's getting late.

***

We walk beneath a moonlit sky

feet burrow into the cool white sand

as the ocean makes her nightly confessions.

The quiet expanse of stars
kisses the words out my mouth.

My eyes find hers and smile

as we leave footprints in the sand.