I am sleeping alone
on the porch
because it’s full inside,
the cabin crowded
to the last couch.
In the dark, I luxuriate
in open space
under the night sky.
Stars catch between
the vertebrae
of pine branches.
Water purls
against the dock,
haunts every contour
of this shore.
I drift on sleep’s brink
when I hear you–
mouths aching with song,
strumming pure hunger
across the strait
between us.
You might come
to consume me
down to rib and hip
but I will go gladly,
surrender to fur and teeth,
become wildness
for the space
of a night.
