I Want to Love You

I want to be the door in your jamb--
always to close to your strong members.
I want to swell with our humid love
so we will be stuck together.
Love-locked, your frame around my
solid core, we'd never be jimmied apart.

I want to be your vanity drawer,
to hide my treasures in you.
I want to be the nail driven homeward
to my life-purpose by your blows.
I wish to be the foil embracing
your dark stone--together a gem.

I want to love your gold shore,
to hug, caress and kiss your shifting contours,
to batter relentlessly against
your changeless self during my storms,
to bejewel you during high tides,
and reveal your secrets during low.

I would be a fish to spend and draw
life swimming through and breathing you.
I'd be the white to your plump yolk,
to surround and nourish you as you grow,
to help you rise if you're beaten,
to be each figure and ground for each.

...I want to love you...

Craig A. Reynolds, In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, Alyson Publications, 1986.