We're Standing on the Sun

 

you say when I break the aloe leaf
and smear its sweet, clear gel over your body.

On the nude beach, you get hard

and stretch skyward like an unfurling touch-me-not.

You dive into froth, nearly impenetrable,

maybe the shadows

of a few darting fish. I mirror you above,

twin planets, untouched and indivisible,

borne along by our bodies toward a farther shore.

- Derrick Austin