Song for Pia

by Neil Flowers

Lost in the night
each other
left arm over
the solid weight
of her breathing
solid weight of her
Left hand on her breast
her hands cupped
around mine
Just that much
more than all
the politics of
the broken world

Small scallop
of her skin
between her neck
and flowered nightshirt

cool
soft
skin

I don’t know what love is
I do not know I swear
but I kiss her there
small showering kisses
on her soft brown skin
now while we can
a hundred two hundred
Who keeps count?
Fools for gossip rags
Next day a little chime at noon
from my cell and her text:
“Ah, your arms around me,”
with an exclamation mark,
then: “See you Sunday, mi amor.”