Sunlight on Flesh, by John Grey

Sunlight on flesh -
the blood knows it’s there –
even the marble statue
thaws a little –
(did her naked toe just move?) –

your kiss -
similar effect –
even the memory,
that shopping aisle 
of enjoined lips –
the rose garden
of fluttering color
and thornless stalks –
or the ascending stairs
where the room at the top
reaches down to pull me up –

one shadow slinks away –
another dissolves –
a departing bird 
leaves its song behind –
the field is free for me
to sing it.

​

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Poetry Salzburg Review and Hollins Critic. Latest books, Leaves On Pages and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Lana Turner and International Poetry Review.