Child-Sweet

Child-Sweet

Your love prised me open like a clam
numb heart
opened to an oyster pearl
of giggling joy
nose twister
bouncing on my poor chest
like a mad puppy
growling in my ear
tiny hands pushing flesh
into a dozen pleasing shapes
putty face stretched into a
samurai, frog and monster.
And now you deck me out
in nature's finery,
a beached, snoring Neptune
bejeweled with flotsam from the sea-
cat's eyes and kelp, pale sea lettuce
bleached herring bones and
coral shards for teeth.
Aroused from my mock sleep
I rear up, roaring
and you rush into the sanctuary of sea
shrieking from this monster you've created.
Under a warm sky
I cast off clinging robes of kelp
spit sand and guard
your playing in the tide.
Child-sweet, brief thing of flesh
I guard your playing in the sea
with my own quiet eyes
of love.

– Jogyata.

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