Lithe Love

She is to me, at least I wish,
A mirror of what I have hidden
The words read my chapter
The eyes alive
The moment of bold fun
The sharing of sanctity
The daring, opens it all

Fierce words flow through me
Excited, wondering, hopeful, believing
They calm as they take shape
Fearing they can overwhelm
If read quickly and without
Touch
Their power eager to sing

How this lithe love
Is perfect in tone
Terrific in display
Trembling in creative rapture
Tentative in travel forward
Tummo for two
New meaning to yes
More good ready to embrace
More each day, of thoughts and words
Throat is clearing

Tom Squitieri is a three-time winner of the Overseas Press Club and White House Correspondents’ Association awards for work as a war correspondent. His poetry appears in more than 30 publications, in the book “Put Into Words My Love,” in the film “Fate’s Shadow: The Whole Story” and in Color: Story 2020. He has taught writing, journalism, media studies, political systems and realities, foreign policy, and practical street knowledge at Washington & Jefferson College and American University, and writes most of his poetry while parallel parking or walking his dogs, Topsie and Batman.