Here with You

by James Crews

It’s too hot on this August afternoon
to move from our places on the couch,
even to slice the peach still waiting
on the counter for the kiss of the knife.

A different kind of hunger keeps me
here with you, rubbing the fine hairs
on your arms that have turned blond
after all those hours in the sun,

and which are just now catching
the light, spinning it into gold I want
to touch over and over, never once
having dreamed I’d ever be this rich.

From The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal
Storey Publishing, 2023.

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