kiss.

Lately I've been having visions
of a beach at night.
On the shore there are people
dancing
beautiful.
And there are little fires that open up the blackness.

First I dreamt I roamed around a forest
like Omovo
and Ifeyiwa
in the midnight,
and came out onto this beautiful shore.

And then my lover was there with me on this
same beach and we touched hands and
danced and
were alone.
And then the possibilities of all to which we had said goodbye
were.

Now I dream of the people at night
dark bodies.
And I swim out into the ocean and
I am lost but
my desire for the sea,
my hunger for the deep,
led me there.
And they tried to take it away from me but
still I swam out and saw my body
from far far away.



The way I see it is
someday you and I will stand
together
on that very beach.
[Its shoreline curves away and
the ripples of waves catch bright
moonlight. The sand is cold and wet beneath my
feet.]

And we will kiss
with a purity of love
that this world cannot hope to
spark.
Eternally for
our lover will be there, so close,
that the poet's eyes can't meet his gaze.

This is how I understand the way
I want to kiss you now,
brother.

In that embrace
while the ripples tickle my toes
and sand sticks to my skin
and your hand is constantly in mine,
I will meet my ancestors.
And friends.
And those whose depths touched mine so
painfully.
They will greet me with joy
and my heart will meet its end of
this present aching sadness.

I imagine them all.
Those who fought
who prayed
who ended their lives with degradation and pain.
Those in whose footsteps I have walked
under birches and on railway lines
and in the seaside towns which are dead now.

We shall meet whilst I dream
of this beach.


You see
beside us
is the ocean.
Deep which calls to deep.