Penumbral Ride

They venture only into inward dusk –

the anteroom to certain schemes of sleep;

November is their favorite month

to play androgynously with your dreams –

to beckon you beyond and in and down

into the deep wherein your body still

remembers everything: the severed thing –

the sweet distress of an illicit sexual abandon

which resides, abandoned, powerful, inside.

You will descend into, and then ascend

from, this penumbral ride – hours before

the morning breaks. You’ll stay awake.

.