I know what you may be thinking
posed in sinuous arrest on a pedestal
like an art nouveau vase
in the museum of my mind

I want others to see what I see
a bloom about to unfold
under the warm caress
of an expert hand
besotted with all of you
and when it’s over

and it will be over

you’ll shed your petals
and perfume on the wind
and I’ll be left with
the velvet taste of you
on my thirsty lips.

Marie C Lecrivain is a poet, publisher, and curator of Dashboard Horus. Her work has been published in California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Gargoyle, Nonbinary Review, Orbis, Pirene’s Fountain, and other journals. She’s the author of several books of poetry and fiction, and editor of Ashes to Stardust: A David Bowie Tribute Anthology (forthcoming ©2023 Sybaritic Press,www.sybpress.com).