Solicitation, by Adrienne Asher

Posted on October 16, 2019

Come now. Pull me into you as wind lures

leaves into a vortex, reeling. My skin remembers

fingers trailing and the touch of someone’s tongue.

If you push your breath across my wrists, I’ll feel

your most sacrificial secrets brush me. Betrayal

and devotion, both. I will allow your breathing message

to be borne to me the way a tiger carries cubs:

with fierce attention. Summer opens everything,

autumn rakes it all together. Will winter sting

us into immobility? Are there moments left

to finish songs still playing on my skin?

Sometimes voices clamor with such strong

insistence that I cannot mute myself.

Sometimes silence deepens and I arise

reborn. Will we ever come to equilibrium?

Will we ever ride tempests

of our own creation? There could be ritual.

There could be awe and worship. Listen, I know this–

Someone will bow down. Someone will kneel.

Someone will pick up the rhythm and sing.

*The 64, best poets of 2018*

The Black Mountain Press