~lauds~ a frenzy of bird songs wake me when it is twilight your familiar body is dawn lit through venetian blinds slats of soft light accentuating the curves of your back an island amongst the waves of sheets tossed aside you are my bora bora to sail back to after the war i gently kiss each buttock trying not to wake you i kiss the lagoon in the small of your back and next the shoulder nearest me and finally your face which smiles eyes peering at me you groggily ask what and i answer in all the world you only are my homeland - - - - - - - ~prime~ here is my voice to praise what fulfills admiring eyes watching you at the foot of the bed brushing showered hair there is splendor merely in your dressing before the mirror doing a reversed striptease a few minutes every morning me envying your clothes as romeo wishing to be juliet's glove i'd rather weave my mouth into a cup as with the bra you press that it could be my skin you pushed into with your feet making the long trip along your calves and stretching up tightly across your thighs to linger there all day as stockings - - - - - - - ~terce~ i am attentive to the elegance with which you eat using artifacts and ritual you consume with affection what a blind and untasting stomach cannot appreciate i finish first and begin another human ceremony standing behind you to partake in your hair's scent uncovering your ear to revisit and nibble its lobe reacquainting myself with the flavor of your neck mumbling grace into your skin for the banquet you provide i lean into your gaping blouse hungry again - - - - - - - ~sext~ you led me through a pasture under the noon day sun to some trees and there you gave me your blessings and instructions on submission you called me your garden and proceeded to plow open my shirt i welcomed the inundation of your kisses irrigating every field with hair descending upon me like rain and warm cheeks like the sun devotedly raking and hoeing my clothing out of your way to cultivate your garden with tilling fingers and delving tongue i felt the seed stimulated by spring their stirring tingling my topsoil until i was summer warm and obediently growing in your touch ah nature i sighed and this control of me you called husbandry - - - - - - - ~nones~ you arrived dancing and laughing daring me to come out your cotton dress soaked and where in clung it revealed your skin seemingly naked and tantalizingly glistening you chased me around the house catching me on the couch gripping with cold hands squeezing with wet arms and wet legs we rolled to the floor and wrestled on the rug until exhausted i undressed you and dried you and massaged you to sleep and on the floor built over you a tabernacle of bed sheets recited our covenant then had dinner ready when you woke - - - - - - - ~vespers~ you are watching the evening star where i find you a breeze comes and tumbles with your hair and clothing i kneel before you to pray in accord with my nature a deep sea dive into the dusky place under your skirt feeling giddy and buoyant like a dolphin in the surf my lips are tentacles investigating smooth thighs my tongue an oyster that palms and polishes a pearl i become the sea lifted by the moon to knead the beaches a million tongues lapping the coasts filling the grottoes thus do i praise you worship you serve you - - - - - - - ~compline~ like stars we burn with incalescent fusion deep into night and afterwards when at last you slept i spoke my fears that stars die and our lives are not even a second of the sun's i still desired you and could not bear the approach of morning for there is that in me which wants more than nature allows then near crying i nuzzled between you and the mattress to discover you were not sleeping you were listening and draped one arm one leg over me you then whispered if death is not an end i'll come to wherever you are so sleep my darling i will be here when you wake