I do not want to love you from afar,

Not only, although l do.

I want to be closer than your bedsheets are

And feel the flesh of you.

I want to breathe you into me,

My face against your side, or breast or throat,

My hands caressing you,

With their “I love, I love, I love.”

I want to listen to your pulse,

Each beat repeating

My whole song of life.

I will hear and be glad,

And snuggle closer still,

Be gladder and go to sleep.

In the night you may turn,

And I may dream you yearn,

And I’ll turn, too,

To yearn right next to you,

And you will sigh a happy sigh

And not know why.

You’ll open eyes at dawn;

I’ll open mine, see you, and smile,

And we will lie there happy

One long, long while.