John Trigonis gives us both darkness and light; a man, a woman, a motel room.
The Naked Kiss
It was a naked kiss shared between two nobodies
in the night, moonlight vinyl scratching
into a cracked ceiling where crystal chandeliers
once lit up letters and lovers alike.
The front door ached with every turn of
their heads, as two strangers’ tongues tried to
pick the locks into the dark mysteries of each other,
TV salt and peppered, the ice rumbling
rhythmic in broken glasses on the night table.
A naked kiss and nothing more, she said.
In the fanless dark, shadows chased themselves as
stray I love yous danced broken record on
airwaves around their twisted bodies on the zombie
bed they tried desperately not to crease.
She eavesdropped for an ex’s engine revving in the lot
while used car salesman’s eyes scanned
thick curtains for the owl-shaped headlights of a ‘57
Ford Thunderbird. A naked kiss, she said…
But the way they loved away that rug-burnt evening in
Room 314 of the Horizon Motel was both warm as
childhood and Willy Loman cold, meant being caught
in a gorgon’s gaze and never blinking.
He, content with puckered lips; she, with kissing stone.
***
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I posted to facebook with your hashtag of your name…my comments…well deserved…”My good friend #johnttrigonis from back home in NJ…writes of passion and lust through a steamy encounter. Thank you for sharing John. It is as vibrant and lyrical as it is sexy and smooth. *finger snap*”
Thanks, Saulo and Kareem, for reading my poem and expressing your own words about it. Means much, my friends!
Wow! Great imagery! One could really feel the temptation and anxiety from the characters. Always a poet from early on; John was always an artist! Keep up the wonderful work, the world needs it.
Fantastic! It painted the perfect picture in my head.
I like it! I generally don’t care for poetry; but, I could feel the touch of lips, skin, and anticipation.
Thanks, Dave! Consider giving poetry another shot. I can promise you that you will NOT like everything you read, but I can also promise you that you will find stuff that affects you more profoundly than you might’ve expected.
Hey Dave, thanks for those awesome words about my poem “The Naked Kiss” –– Glad it moved you in such a way! And to help you give poetry another shot, as Charlie suggested, here’s a link to download one of my poetry chapbooks: Warehouse City Noir:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15199284/Warehouse%20City%20Noir.pdf
Enjoy, and thanks again for reading and taking the time to comment!