Tonight's Poet Corner: Sins and Straps

Sins and Straps
by Belinda Roddie

He puts on her spandex
to feel a bit thinner. They kiss
over dinner, and he can feel the
stubble - on his cheeks and chin, just
a cut down forest where his shame grew
in black elms with bristling branches.

They put the dishes away together,
sit on the couch together, watch the news
together. They hold hands so tightly that
they almost become threaded
together. The sweat between his toes make
his feet feel webbed. Her lips are soft,
but his are even softer.

When she's asleep, he pulls off
the lingerie under his dress shirt, tucks
the pieces into little boxes to keep under
the bed. When he nestles up next to
her, he lets his fingers dance across
the wilderness of her thighs. She lets
her hair grow there, while he wishes
his skin could be as smooth as the sail
on a newly built boat, and his body
as curved as the mast against the sky.