Abstinence (a poem I wrote about a year ago)

Last night when we sat and talked
Something watched us with a mischievous plan.

It sat waiting in the corners of your smile,
Camped out deep in the crevice of collar bone,
Covered in a delicate sheet of your skin.

It slipped into the darkness of our conversation,
Crawled through the tunnels between momentary glances,
Shrouded in a mist of unspoken feeling.

Even though you didn’t sense it I did,
It began tying up my family of thoughts into knots
Before plying them with this inebriated idea
Of mulled skin against skin.

And with the trajectory of your heart mapped out
I became unsteady
With its toxicity

I nearly gave in.

Last night I drank too much of it
And my tongue is still red with warm thoughts.
But hanging over me now
Is the abstinence from being held close.

A dull ache I can’t bear feeling this morning.