John Yates

Acolyte

Softly my finger

Traces the line of

Down from your

Belly downward to

The hot lava flow

At your center

Stump in Red Hills

by Georgia O'Keefe

Softly my finger

Touches and probes

And very gently

And very slowly

Caresses the blazing

Heart of your fire

Softly my finger

Paints streaks of

Lightning in

Musky lines of

Glistening flame

On your cheeks

Softly my finger

Encircles your eyes

With rings of

Molten fire and

Silken desire and

Blinding light

Softly my finger

Traces the boundaries

Of your breasts and

I can feel your

Beating heart in a

Circle drawn of lava

Softly my finger

Touches the fullness

Of your lips with

The smoldering

Wetness of your

Burning passion

Softly my tongue

Tastes the earth-born

Fire and flashes of

Searing lightning

And softly I kiss your

Heat glistened lips

Softly my burning

Tongue caresses

The heart of your

Molten wetness,

Softly encircling

The source of fire

Oceanic

Our bodies moved

Together in soft and

Endlessly rolling

Waves far from

Known shores

Our bodies were

Tapestries woven

From threads of

Wave-born desire

And deep longing

Blue Nude by Henri Matisse

Our bodies flowed

In silken waves of

Our breathing and

Dissolved in the touch

Of eyes meeting eyes

Our bodies surged

Across uncharted

Vast reaches of

Reefs, shoals and

Fathomless depths

Our bodies rocked

Together in waves

Of throbbing heartbeat

Rolling softly into

Spray and spume

Wanted

Oh, yes

I have had women want me

Right now

There is the bleached blonde

With the medicine shield

Tattooed on her breast

And a gold ring on

Her shaved crotch

Last year

There was the California

Woman with the silken voice

Full of Nirvana and Om

And the soft sighs of

Tantric ecstasy

The year before,

There was the Irish redhead

Whose laughter was like

Tinkling glass and

Who required only

Four orgasms a day

Oh, yes

I have had women want me

And yet...

The blonde wants only my body and

Just long enough to forget, and

The Californian wanted a master and

Despised me when I wasn't, and

The redhead drove her car off a bridge

When orgasms were not enough

Oh, yes

I have had women want me

And yet...

I often think of a young man

Who spent days and hours

Wandering the woods alone,

Searching out beauty and

Longing to find a woman

Wandering there by herself

But she never came

Oh, yes

I have had women want me

And yet...

Fire

I sit, transfixed, before the roaring fire

And watch flames leaping high into the

Black night sky, casting shadows on

Rock and tree and into the blackness,

And I am utterly entranced by flame.

Flames leap and my eyes close to the

Blinding light of carpet bombs over Iraq,

Watching children's screams washed over

By flames like a river of molten fire and

Drowned in a roaring of tortured wind.

Before my campfire and nightmare visions,

I feel a strange sense of peace as the heat

And light wash over me like a silken river.

Flame caresses me and fills my body with

Light and warmth and dancing waves.

Yet the waking nightmares leap toward me

From the flames as the bombs fall like meteors

And, as the people flee into a landscape of

Devastation, of shattered concrete and twisted

Steel, the air is torn asunder in waves of fire.

I have a sudden and inexplicable urge to to

Take off my clothes and sit naked before the

Flames, and waves of fire and heat dance

Across my body, singeing the hairs of my chest

Until my screams tear across the nighttime sky

Clouds of black smoke fill the skies under a

Burning desert sun that mocks the scattering

People who know not where to run and hide,

As tidal waves of bone-deep roaring and

Raging heat slam their bodies to the earth.

Flames sear my skin and turn my mind into

A cauldron of light and pain, and my closed

Eyes are a glowing depth of red that explodes

Rays of bright white light across my vision,

And I soar into the dark sky on wings of pain.

Fiercely I Come to You

There is no gentleness in my need for you now,

Only fierceness that screams out for the hard

Press of your flesh, for your loins pressing,

Pressing into me hard, very hard, and my legs

Wrapped tightly around your waist, heels

Burying into the tight muscles of your back

As my pelvis arches sharply to meet yours

I will not think, I will not remember or hope,

But I will feel your body tense against mine

And I will feel lightning bolts of white heat

Flashing and crackling through my body

As a fierce scream rips away from my belly

And sears through my chest and lungs when

Your maleness presses sharply into me

My body convulses and my fierce screams

Subside into sobs, and you pull us upward

Until we are sitting with our arms and legs

Grasping tightly, you still inside me hard

But not moving, just inside me and still

While tears stream down my cheeks and

You kiss them softly from my bruised lips

I don't want the gentleness of your kiss

Or these feelings to escape their prison

Don't you understand that I don't want to

See that everything's on my shoulders now

That I was fired and I am broke and have

Bill collectors calling me for their money

And my teen-aged son seethes with rage

Don't you understand that I am trying,

Trying very hard to allow these feelings

To pass through me as if I didn't exist,

As if there was no me at the center of this,

As if I was very far away on a high cliff

Just watching my fierce cries of pleasure

Like lava hot wind scorching all emotion

I want you as fiercely as an eagle cry

Tearing through the hot desert wind

But instead you lay me on my back

And your tongue traces my breasts and

Belly and finds the place of my fierceness,

Of my longing, as my thighs clasp you hard

Into me and your tongue gently caresses me

I scream out my pleasure and pain

As your tongue presses me now hard

Now soft, now into me and around me

And my thighs want to pull all of you

Deep inside of me and still you don't stop

Until my breath comes in gasps and my

Whole body is lost in waves of tremors

Trembling I try hard to quiet my breathing

Try hard to still the heaving in my chest,

Try hard to stop this dry, tearless sobbing,

Try hard not to think of the years when

I felt helpless and alone, buffeted by strong

Winds from a storm tossed sea of emotion

That tore loose all of my illusions and anchors

I pull you toward me and onto your back, and

I straddle you and push you into me and

Grind my pelvis into yours as hard as I can

Until bone bruises bone, flesh bruises flesh

Until every part of me cries out for surcease

But I can't stop, I won't stop this reckless

Plunging and arching and pushing into you

My whole body is at the same fierce instant

A conflagration of feeling, yet strangely numb

As my movements begin to stagger drunkenly

I collapse onto your chest, everything in me spent

And you sit up and pull me gently toward the

Soft warmth of your body, lost within your arms,

And our bodies rock slowly, softly, fiercely