Gasping for Air

Wayne (Scott) Ray
From:   Strong Winds: The Second Canadian Poetry Association Anthology. Ed. Sheila Hyland. Fredericton, NB: Broken Jaw Press, 1997.

If I held you close,
placed my hands around
your ravens-wing hair
and pulled your face
into my chest so that
as you held your breath
and opened your bright eyes
you would gaze upon a map.

In the upper corner
would be an image of you
standing naked on a pedestal
and all the roads on my
map of the human heart would
lead directly to you.

At this moment when we are one
in my embrace, you have the right
to take this image from
my heart wall or leave it there.
Either way, the memory of your
beauty remains and you pull back
from my flesh and hair, gasping for air.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5

Wayne (Scott) Ray's works copyright © to the author.