he reaches, & the rings decorating slender fingers catch slivers of pale glinting moonlight, until his hand is in her hair, softly curling about the nape of her neck. he was never one for words & she knows this, but the way he pulled her nearer ; the oh-so subtle urgency underlying that smooth act, all but recited a monologue. hours had bled into days & months. a drought of the heart. he’d kept track of the minutes, it seemed, that came & went before he was able to have her before him again. slowly ( he was patient yet, savoring the smell of her, the sight of her ) he nears ; the kiss is not soft & ghostly, it is solid & vigorous. water to a man who’d wandered a desert. who’d yearned.















