Kiss of Life

 As your lips etch your soul

into mine,

purging gospels away
into the seventh or umpteenth hells.,
As you claim my soul,
as rightfully yours,
and I could not see
to see.

Won’t stars come crashing down,
bearing joys unseen.,
as this euphoric bliss
is finally ours to claim.

For a desire whose thirst
rivals the waves prowess,
to claim sands as their own,
As passion rages like fires
that morph parched firewood
to cinders and fume,
Will our arms stay enmeshed,
as inseparable
as salt in the oceans’ womb,
filling tears at the lovers’ tomb.

As we edge closer,
Will you seal this love
with a kiss.

A kiss of life,
to defy the trauma of our forebears,
whose lives at their tomb
were questioned
with the viral kiss of death.

Darling,
shall we kiss and tell
the world,
our love is here to stay,
our love is here to slay.

Kiss of Life.
© Raju Behara

Art in Frame:

Keith Vaughan, Drawing of Two Men Kissing, 1958-73Tate Archive, © DACS, The Estate of Keith Vaughan

John Dugdale, “I Could Not See to See,” 1999, Morton Street, N.Y.C. © John Dugdale