MAYBE NEXT TIME, THE PINEAPPLE FILLED POEM by John Grey

How else to express it

in a gift. Chocolates, it had to be.

I imagine you devouring every one

while wallowing in me.

So what if you nibble on one

and you give the rest to your kid brother.

It was the closest

to intimacy I could find.

Fruit filling in lieu of feeling.

Almonds to replicate the healing of touch.

And the sweetness of it all,

a tongue to savor

the rapture of two lovers in the dark.

All of it in a heart-shaped box.

From me to you, emblazoned with

the word of the day... "Sampler."