First,
I
had
had
a
thought
so
unnerving
I
went
cold
all
over,
in
the
heat.
What
if
I
love
this
man,
whom
I
hardly
know,
more
than
I’ve
loved
any
other
man,
and
at
once
I
was
a
water
fountain,
at grammar school, in the hall, a bubbler,
I was bubblering, I had turned into
a water-bearer who couldn’t bear but
blubbered her water with gulpy blubbers
on a hot summer day. Years ago,
I had been a sudden desert fountain
most days, at old love’s fresh sudden end.
And now, here I am, again,
but not in my cherryskin armor, again,
not with my cherry bow and juice-tipped
arrows and dried cherry jerkin
and quiver, and cherry scenthound—not that
aging cherry Artemis again, it feels
different, now, with this humorous curious
man, I feel as if we may be
the distilled fruit, the liquor itself, as if I’m
in the interior of new love’s
mouth, I am safe, under his tongue.
And under my own tongue, look
who you see—look!, perfectly safe, it is he.