— I am not naked under summer sky.
There’s so much forbidden to me; so much

you and I can’t do. Here’s our lullaby:
we’d sit on a grassy hill at night, touch

of heat in the air, and with night’s orphans,
crickets, we would sing to you. But twilight

is when you must go home and the heavens
always seem empty without you. Tonight

I’ll sit on our hill and star-gaze. Our future
feels far away, a void full of star-beams

and dark. You can’t join me. I can’t join you.
But if we could — we could — we would whisper

secrets under stars. My heart pounding, dreams
within dreams within all that we can’t do.

][][

“go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families” — Walt Whitman