Close Cover Before Striking

Your touch awakes me
Tempts me
to shed my slumber-skin
Your teasing fingers dance
like flames   upon my spine
I feel the heat of body
pressing   into body
Yet wrap my arms around you
like a moth   drawn
to a fiery death

Your whispered words of love
mesmerize
Entice me to ignore
the acrid smell   of burning wings
Forgetting match-book cover wisdom
I melt
into your fire

The scent   of After Shave
hangs heavy in the air
like smoke

* "Close Cover Before Striking" was originally published in Poetry Halifax Dartmouth No. 27