lovely receiver

my blanched smile,
scalded to slip off the
outer skins that have kept
me away.

i sit near a drafty
door in order that i
may calm the new fever;

the cold coming from
beneath the crack
is a spectral wash
in her reaching up-toward.

where is the calm
quiver i've come to
love so much,

but in the invitation
of your timid smirk,
your peculiar increase?

the pearl is there
waiting when my
lovely receiver sends
herself unguarded.

now there's an invitation
to lurk at her door,
peer into the color of grace

(or the sea, which
gives and takes likewise;
flowing with the lull of tides.)

say something here of
the predicate of good love,
i tell myself,

but come up empty-headed,
weak with the exertion
and lowered in my humility.

when you find someone
who receives you, you
have unearthed the stones
of the gods,

and the white-bright
pageantry of gifts
purchased by the balance
in the universe.

because, really, when
one receives one gives
if the intention is there.

to make oneself
vulnerable as the
conquered land -

to make oneself
inside-out and
exposed as the autumn
maple -

to make oneself
hold back the head
and put forth the heart -

is the mark of
a lovely receiver
who is free to fall
and fall fully.