emonorwid

“Bad men you want to kiss are the worst; he had only to use the right tone of voice and you offered your throat to the knife.”
― Patrick Gale, A Place Called Winter

“It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined
Half of the night with our old friend
Who’d showed us in the end
To a bed I reached in one drunk stride.
Already I lay snug,
And drowsy with the wine dozed on one side.

I dozed, I slept. My sleep broke on a hug,
Suddenly, from behind,
In which the full lengths of our bodies pressed:
Your instep to my heel,
My shoulder-blades against your chest.
It was not sex, but I could feel
The whole strength of your body set,
Or braced, to mine,
And locking me to you
As if we were still twenty-two
When our grand passion had not yet
Become familial.
My quick sleep had deleted all
Of intervening time and place.
I only knew
The stay of your secure firm dry embrace.”
― Thom Gunn

“I don't remember how I hurt myself,
The pain mine
Long enough for me
To lose the wound that invented it”
― Jericho Brown, The New Testament

“At worse, one is in motion; and at best,
Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,
One is always nearer by not keeping still.”
― Thom Gunn