An Exercise in Love

for Jackson Allen

My friend wears my scarf at his waist

I give him moonstones

He gives me shell & seaweeds

He comes from a distant city & I meet him

We will plant eggplants & celery together

He weaves me cloth

                   Many have brought the gifts

                   I use for his pleasure

                   silk, & green hills

                   & heron the color of dawn

My friend walks soft as a weaving on the wind

He backlights my dreams

He has built altars beside my bed

I awake in the smell of his hair & cannot remember

his name, or my own.