Kindal Shea needs oxygen to breathe

music
volleyball
singing
swimming

Kissing

They are kissing, on a park bench,
on the edge of an old bed, in a doorway
or on the floor of a church. kissing
as the streets fill with balloons
or soldiers, locusts or cofetti, water
or fire or dust. kissing down through
the centuries under sun or stars, a dead tree,
an umbrella, amid derelicts. kissing
as christ carries his cross, as ghandi
sings his speeches as a bullet
careens through the air toward a child's
good heart. they are kidding,
long, deep, spacious kisses, exploring
the silence of the tongue, the mute
rungs of the upper palate, hungry
for the living flesh. they are still
kissing when teh cars crash and the bombs
drop, when the babies are born crying
into the white air, when mozart bends
to his bowl of soup and stalin
bends to his garden. they are kissing
to begin the world again. nothing
can stop them. they kiss until their lips
swell, their thick tongues quickening
to the budded touch, licking up
the sweet juices. i want to believe
they are kissing to save the world,
but they're not. all they know
is this press and need, these two-legged
beasts, their faces like roses crushing
together and opening, they are covering
their teeth, they are doing what they have to do
to survive the worst, they are sealing
the hard words in, they are dying
for our sins. in a broken world they are
practicing this simple and singluar act
to perfection. they are holding
onto eachother. they are kissing.