Collaboration

with Kim Addonizio's First Kiss

Afterwards he had that drunk, drugged look,
clouds around his deep brown eyes, the one
he used to get, when he came inside
her for the very first time, his eyes  
held in hers, turned vague and filmy,
as though behind them, more potent than words,
relief, and a wanting, blood slipping
from his cheeks, and his whole head, 
the tanned stalk of his neck, a fragile stem,
like that of a flower, lolled over on her chest,
so she would have to hold him--  
the weight of his head in her palm--
closer, amazed at the sheer power
of his snore, an exhibition
of satiety, which was nothing like the needing
to be safe,
to be fed, 
his hand to her thigh,
himself to her and made the seal tight
between them,
eyelids flickering,
this minute, this
moment, this giving of himself, knowing
how it feels to rely absolutely on another,
he could show her how helpless
he was—that’s what she saw, that night when he  
fell into her lips,
tripping on his words,
leaned up against the frame
of her door,
keys colliding in his pocket;
a man
who would never be invincible,
who was going to be that vulnerable,
that fearless,
that easy and impossible to hurt.

Ed Templeton; Teenage Kissers