A quiet refrain

remember when beauty was measured
by the avidity of a woman's eyes
irradiating the motion of oceans
against starlit nights fading, fading
into summer's glowing belly?

and when we'd lie awake gasping
under blankets of tigerlilies
lipstick smiles under tossled hair
against cold brackish gazes
at blank walls in quiet rooms?

I'd like to slip into something
a little softer to carry this
revivified unimpelling conclusion
to ride waves only viewed once
through blazing unbelieving stretches

fading, she casts away her soaked towel
singing a song she knows to herself
fading, my breath tightens under blankets
scaling songs as they trail away
to a deep well with unending echoes

fading
lightness of sound
fading
darkness of touch

my body melts to honey
as warm waves crash
carrying off the shore
and fades away

a descending melody
with a quiet refrain