XVII
STRANGERS (4-7)

a cultivated personality:
any moment, taken sideways
from another span of attention,
and slammed down–or up
into isolation, into a new cycle
of breathing, of slow blinking,
of a new kind of stroke. slow
tilt to one plane of gentle touch
down and around, but bold when
traipsing loosely around a new
stranger’s wrist, other wrist, slope
of neck, edge of nose. bold. in a
split gasp, stilled, pulled up and
held firm and hair and up and
heated blur-eyes and up and
up again and enough no never​