I remember the dawn’s first early light,
silhouettes of darkened heads bob love,
no secret anymore, amore in paradise,
no strangers to me all these Javanese puppets
shadow dancing storytelling backlit black figures
projected dark behind ancestral white silk screens.
The purrs and coos, the adoration and warm embraces,
cheek to cheek our dance, arms supporting all around
language, I would never learn
to speak that way, electricity of anxiety fading
in relaxed relief of supporting air
we breathed, we breathed with increased ease.
Felt fingers, palms of warmth, soft blue blankets,
caressed hair, kiss of forehead,
beads beat a plastic soundtrack drumroll,
and we were off, I remember,
onto happy wandering the race
not to lose but just keep abreast,
then you all fading in time to the music
into the distance up ahead,
me coming up in last place now,
losing out for how long to,
running only as the lonely keep on running.
Lanning Lee 