Guest Poet--Pauline Marie Spirtos

Pauline M. Spirtos

Primal Hunger

                   I want to consume you,

pull apart your ribs and taste

each thin, white tip

with tenderness.

                   I would run my tongue

over grooves in your clavicle—

find the pools of flavor in

my favorite of your bones

which re-healed in such a lovely,

jutty way; with curves and dips

and pointed parts.

                    I could slurp warm

platelets from your spindle-cells

as easy as sucking sweet milk

from sponge cake.

                   I want to gorge

on your thick sensibility,

overpowering reason and principle,

but if I can indulge myself further—

I pass on the politics

to save room for an intoxication-laden

desert.

                    I picture myself twirling a crystal

glass by the stem

while the garnet liquid undulates

and opens petals of scent—

fig, chocolate, and dark

over-ripe cherry.

Your fluid imagination—

a sparse luxury.