A Hot Summer Night

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