Imperatives

Bring me out
mine the wild abandon
that was mine
once
when I was seventeen
a young wraith in black
bells ringing in flight
wrapped around a young man's back
on a BMW that wound up mountains
to a naked lunch
on ice-planted crags
pounded by the Pacific

once
when I was thirty
entrancing from clandestine
curtained brilliance
a subversive siren in a sea
of easily parted waves of dark-eyed lovers

awaken passion one more time
I am in danger!
the zodiac abandons me
to land-locked shadows
they smother me flat
I cannot breathe without
the vivid rainbow edge

find me
free me from pale dry days
of drab restraint

From Inside/Out by Marilyn Buck. Copyright © 2012 by Marilyn Buck. Reprinted with permission of City Lights. All rights reserved.