Please. Stay.

I ache for the touch of your skin on my skin

The gentle pressing of your palms upon my breasts

Please kiss me softly, hold back but never to taunt me, just to let me rest before you begin once again

Take me to the beach at sunset and toss me down onto the shore

Tug your fingers through my hair and bite my lips once more

I need a little connection, to feel the beat of your heart against mine

I’m starving, darling

I need you like water, like a wanderer needs a river on a summer night

Because I’ve been lost for years in a lonely desert, with nothing to fasten me to life

Tell me, dear, would you taste the salt on my tongue?

Would you dig your fingernails into my shoulder or the flesh in between my ribs and collarbone?

Would you hold me so I don’t sink into the dirt?

So I don’t float away, untethered from Earth?

Please. Stay.

Take your hand in mine and trace the curve of my arm, the crook of my elbow, the fragile skin between my forefinger and thumb

Wait with me for sunrise to arrive

peaceful and sweet and clean and new