By: RC deWinter

give me some skin

there you sit
owning yourself magnificently
so at home with who you are

that’s irresistible
the sight of someone
comfortable in his own skin

no tricks no games
no attempt at disguise
content to just to be

how did you come to be
so perfectly at ease
with your place in the universe?

i want to be your acolyte
share yourself with me
initiate me into your mysteries

i can’t wait to taste your skin
i can’t wait to wear it
as you bathe me in your brilliance 

###

all day sucker

it’s easy to make a fool of me
i tell the truth
but never remember
not everybody does

i have such a naked need to believe
the naïf who swallows
every hook line and sinker

toss it in the pond
and gulp!
it’s found a home

my gullet’s full
of curved sharppointed steel
that even as i sleep
jabs me endlessly

foolfoolfool

i need to wise up
i need to shut up too
i give the store away
every time i open my mouth

### 

culling

in a corner of my soul
sits a bag
tattered
from being opened and closed
so many times

i visit that corner at irregular intervals
inspecting the contents
to see if there is anything
no longer relevant
discardable

one by one
i reveal my secrets
quietly
noticeable only to those
paying strict attention

perhaps someday
the bag itself
can be discarded
emptied of all
once so carefully concealed

### 

in clover

i am the
ghost of white clover
frozen in
winter snow
waiting for a sacred kiss
to thaw me awake

when the hot
hungry sun of spring
returns you’ll
hear me call
for rescue without knowing
whose lips i’m waiting

for knowing
only the one who’s
meant to find
me will come
and when you kneel crushing new
grass beneath your knees

my perfume
will dizzy you with
promises you
never dreamed
as you swell with desire and
when your hungry mouth

brushes the
soft rounded blossom
that is me
i’ll rise to
meet your eyes lips and heart with
the twins of my own

###

RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, (Patrick Heath Public Library of Boerne, 11/2021) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Twelve Mile Review,  Variant Literature, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.