Six hundred skeletal muscles
composing my body and yours,
keeping me, us together
from the one on my forehead
whimsically raising eyebrows, carving
wrinkles of my emotions, palpebral
ligaments lacrimal bones, eyelids close,
extraocular, eyelids open eyeballs move,
upwards downwards left right I see you,
I gaze, I fixate, analyse your every feature
similar to mine, auricular, wiggling ears
fine tuning the amplitude of sounds,
echoes of your voice penetrating deep
in cochlea fluids, nasal, procerus
makes me frown when I don’t understand,
dilating nostrils I smell you
my mouth, lifting lip angles I smile
in pain shape grimaces, in love
I kiss you, mandibular movements I bite,
jaws, tongue, a restless one, binds contorts
creates letters I speak to you, soft palate
I swallow, I breathe, pharynx, larynx,
vocal chords I sing with you, my neck
clavicular I turn, my face away pausing
from your sight then twist it back
to look at you again, tilt my head
in reverie torso extends a vertebral column
chest elevates my thoracic rib cage,
inspiration, expiration, respiration
escalating as you approach, diaphragm
abdomen, pelvic stability, my trunk curves
I twist and bend under your rule,
contracting pelvis. Limbs, trapezius
I raise my scapulas as I ignore the answers
to your endless queries, thoracic walls
I extend and flex my humeri,
the first to invite you the second
to hold you tight, wrists, mine have suffered,
hand and fingers I caress you, write
this one for you, thenar, opposable thumbs,
I call your number. Iliopsoas move my hips
to a rhythm we may dance, thighs you touch
suavely make me shiver, gemellus I wrap
my legs around you, tremors in my knees,
soleus, plantar motions, I wander
by your side.
[Featured painting: The Kiss, sculpture by Auguste Rodin, 1882]