If ever electricity appeared in midair it was when their eyes met mine for the first time. The recollection remains a bodily experience–still now i feel the shock. In the years since, one can follow the conduction: letters mailed, dirty pictures, poetic missives. How impudent then to crash into each other again in the desert: claro que there was a fire. A shower of sparks, embers singeing ignored as we basked in our own heat. Feral animals. i’m not sure we escaped unharmed, but i know the coals still burn. Neither of us feels like getting out of this alive. Perhaps a less violent explosion when next we meet. Perhaps more frequent meetings.

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She confronts new beings with her belly up. Non-threatening, excitable. My response is a toe-tap dance of delight. We sniff each other’s butts, nip at ears. Tentative, eager. Watching stars in the dark, i can catch her shimmering. These distant days we whisper to each other of old difficulties, new miracles. We find words for the sweet and sacred. Someday soon, we will roll in the surf. Juntos. Our soft fur soaked, frosted by pebbled sand. Our yelping laughter engulfed by the ocean.

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He found a seat among the roots of the tree closest to the fire, directly opposite me. i recognized this by straightening myself to face him. He caught my eye and arched his brows in invitation. The party had long since died and the fire was going, too, before i realized i’d been captivated. A week later i listened to the shorebirds as he told me he’d be leaving town, probably soon. Coyly i suggested that there was something i wanted to do with him first. i barely finished saying it as he leaned in, beaming, to put his lips against mine for a happy first time. Of so many delicious, happy times. When he does leave he kisses my forehead; my gluttonous heart intact.