Stephane Bouquet

 

from The Next Loves: I

His look and it took maybe 3
hello / seconds
only      his head underneath the blue hoodie
he takes off
because the rain is stopping      look here’s
the planner’s confirmation and
someone’s holding an imaginary map of the conversation we’ll say
that and that
the streets will be all orderly
if I stay close inside
the zones he surveys
but it isn’t easy
imagining that the table and the lamp and the evening
sound like his breathlessness when he uncovers me and cleans

from The Next Loves: V

Red t-shirt and husky voice
we do yoga together      much less strong
than I am but so much more beautiful
at the end in savasana when we’re supposed to become
one of those vibrations in the air and the ritual bell
sets us
almost behind absence I can only
think like an animal to live oh oh
oh that long slim desire
stretched out 2 meters away if I
rolled over on him really would that from now on be the only 
hope of slowing
because of the sweetness in your bones
the quickness of death against which I recite a rose 
     is a rose is a rose is a rose