Almost [V4]

fingers drifted across your darkened skin like the
building shadows from the slow smooth
descent of a summer sun behind the gentle curve of the west
I tried vainly to memorize the
last warm dissipating rays before they
left me desolate

arms tensed around your waist like the
eternal pull of the earth on a lustrous moon
invisibly powerful and
evocative of a stellar waltz in a
vacant ball room after everyone else has gone off into the
night or bedrooms
but the moon is quietly slipping away
losing grip with each graceful turn in the dark

your ethereal eyes were in mine
the soft burn of a million clustered stars that reveal themselves
to the romantics who leave the modern cities
scanning the skies for love and inspiration
only to realize that all those brilliant beacons in heaven have already
died years ago in a cosmic
sigh and collapse

I nearly kissed you
tender pink flesh parted waiting
for warmth but feeling cold static air instead
it was almost remembering a dream of unreal beauty and color before it is
swallowed by the vacuum at the
back of your mind

I opened my eyes to the painful brightness of
another new-day sun still low in the sky
the night and dreams of an almost amorous age already
evaporated into the atmosphere
I lowered my teeming head
hesitated then staggered east leaving
warmth behind me