Hot wax on my fingers (2015)

  

I light candles

On my dinner table

And watch the wax

Drip down its

Long tapered sides

And I think of you,

What if these were

Your fingers

Instead of mind,

Feeling the sting

Of the hot wax

Where I hold too long

Or stroke too hard,

As if what I do

Causes the candles

To burn and melt,

Each stroke

Drawing out of it

This precious fluid

The sting of which

On my fingers

Also brings me

Pleasure,

Thinking it is you,

Who causes it

When if is my thinking

Of you that does,

Imagining again

The touch of you

On me that stirs up

This hot wax scalding

As it always has

And always will.

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