Thunder holds no awe next to this, lightning too fleeting to challenge such power. That look. Eyes unblinking, fearless, hair fallen, smile teasing at the corners of lips raw with delight. Mischief is conceived in these moments, but born is ardor, pure as desert sunlight. Inescapable. Incendiary. The body quakes with unpredictable expectation, and mouths open, waiting, savoring distilled life pouring between long breaths held, these entwined limbs, these pounding hearts knocking to one another in sacred code long thought impossible to hear, never mind decipher. And yet the shark relishing the smell of blood must attack, and so too must bodies in such thrall surrender to instinct, heat pouring from desire, flesh crying for more but grateful for the still, that delicious waiting before lusts consummate in the merciless race for pleasures hinted at; allusions merely forest fires at the base of volcanos. Devastation of propriety never felt so good, and through thin whisps of sweat-stuck follicles, hazel heavens bless with fallen angel certainty the spin and flail of perfect sin, an apple tasted, a path diverged, a stain left on hands busy with the task of fiercely human need somehow unexpectedly, gloriously, incomparably answered. The bend and cling of tensing bodies, the exalted moans, the fevered clutch and plea for it to never end, keep it arriving into a forever of tomorrows, let this small death stretch so long that it proves reward for courageous living. Somewhere a frustrated God rumbles that two mortals stole His finest verse, bending it without words into pure art greater than His loveliest creations. His wrath unheard, ears shrouded under tender kisses and whispered pants of sated desire, the defiance of anything but the pull to release is rewarded faith in things bigger than circumstance, reason or accepted truths. No this defiance is belonging. It’s embracing now and sucking every last joy from prone defenses that should have been unlocked long ago, but for which a key had never been found. Until now. Doors open, grins flash, kisses linger in the open air of freedom; where dreams collide into reality beneath the writhing weight of bliss. (at Strands)