Standing at the window
you slip your arms around my waist
and kiss my bare shoulder
I lean back into you
and lay my head on your chest
How softly the night
folds around us
The moon, sleepy yet, rises,
grandiloquent in her
lace patterned negligee
beguiled by the gloaming
Bats, necromancers of the night,
flittering fragments
of darkness,
excite the sullen summer air
as they frolic, reveling in the gloom
The sweet smell of moon flowers
glissades through the window
carried on the chorus
of crickets
singing to arouse the stars
A moth seduced by the
candle light
flurries into the room
throwing shadows across
the walls
as it flutters and pirouettes
around the flame
I hold my breath
spellbound
You place your hands
on my shoulders
run them gently down
my arms
and cup my hands in yours
lifting up my hands
you scoop up the flailing moth
and ever so tenderly
you close my cupped hands
around it
Confined between
our hands the moth
vibrates and thrashes
I feel the pulse and throb
of its wing beats
against my palms
I feel too the pulse and throb
of your heart on your palms
pressed against my hands
Its beat, familiar, like that
of velvet wings
You blow out the candle
and open my hands
the moth clings to my palm
blowing gently
you release it into the night
You draw me into you
I feel your heat
my heart flutters
Encircled in your arms
I begin to understand
the burning desire
of the moth
to kiss the flame
©Rose