I remember, the first in the garden

Where I bled, a rose stigmata

Purified and holy, a virgin's first

Blush, I burned hot with the love of you.

The second, a gale blew, the back

Stairs the balcony, the rush-hour

Epiphany unfolding, I opened to your lips

Petals unfurling, bee stung and hot.

The third on the floor, while outside

The rain fell, a real summer deluge

You asked permission before

Pushing back the silk and revealing my breast

Milky and hot, you nuzzled in.

The fourth long awaited. I waited

Your arrival, upstairs in our room,

Chair-perched and nervous, my heart

Fluttered fast as the curtain, lifted

In the breeze and danced at your arrival

And we took to each other as if

We had been born to it, too long

Awaited, a thousand lifetimes, a hunger

Satisfied. You took me four times

Each stronger than the last, and after

You traced my freckles with your finger.

New to your eyes, you marveled at my

Many constellations, the dipper on my flank

How satisfied you seemed them.

I knew at last what it meant to be loved.

I could write of the fifth, the sixth, the thousandth.

How many now? Each different, they bear

Your mark, an unbroken chain,

Our apostolic succession.

Love, have you

Given to some other?

So afraid I would be

the one who would leave, you would say

pushed you to it, you would say
 
you had no choice.

Darling, darling,

always, always,

I remember everything.

Always it was you.