sex should be like eating

she told me last night.
something that we just do—
which is exactly the opposite
from the way she touched me.

magnetic electrical impulses
begin in my arm and shock like a current through
my chest
into my stomach sinking it

down like the hollow empty hull of a ship
that floats in the water
allowing the balance of buoyancy
to keep the rest of the vessel afloat.

Buoyancy that is the tugging of equal forces

gravity pulling down
and captured air that will
never stop
trying to escape.

And yet the air is released in my breath, on her neck
in her mouth.
for a moment the balance is skewed
until another shock fills me again.

this is not like eating.
something we just do because we have to.
because it tastes good.
even because we love it.

sex is like language,
creating each sentence
reaching out and hoping that meaning is found
words meeting words

language by definition

we define ourselves
sculpting with our hands, our lips
carving down the spine
through the stomach, into the heart

© october 2007
buoyancy diagram
language image