The Geography of Kisses

On the floor in Blind River
an afghan knit by someone's mother
the darkness but a puzzle daylight
will solve, embraced, one body
broke, running from joblessness

you are a dress of tissue
a sequence of events unfolding
and gravity has the best of us

I'm horizontal between your poles
an imaginary cirlcle encompassing
the salinity of ages

we twirl dry riverbeds on our fingers
try to remember when water was
an element unbound

I travel the lost silence of your cells
seeking the source of gestation

new ladders of DNA swirl inside your
skin, amniotic.

In the morning are sounds of sneezing,
of cereal boxes being shaken.
My hands slide down inside
searching for your toy surprise.

-- Joel Kuper