Intro.

There was only a splattered silence
between herself
and the stars.

She touched two softly-molded fingers to her belly,
reveling at the constellations jumping double-dutch
in the space where her shredded calypso heart-beat
should have spun.

Her curves swayed
like subtle, drunken words,
plucked from the pitcher-full
of browning cider
balanced regally on her hips.

Poetry slid from her tongue
and dripped from the contours
of her lips;
it was alive in her smile.

A god whispered goodnight
to her dimples, and the insides
of her folded wrists.

He looked like music,
and the golden-dusted rhythm
her bare feet
fell to.

A sunset burned on his scalp.

She found her comfort
nestled snuggly there,
throwing shy glances from behind his naps,
and honeyed kisses
like a timid lover.

He cusped her cheek;
and gravity craddled man into her arms,
carrying him back into the shadows
with a whispered secret
and a shared dream.

She receded from the porch -
it was empty now, after all -
and she took the moon's last caress
with her.

That night, she dreamt of purple fires.

That night, she dreamt of love.