Falling in Love in North Florida

I told Hope it felt like all the cells

in my body had turned over & died.

So now they multiply: evenings I crave

red meat; mornings, egg yolk & candlewax.

Your voice through the phone presses its finger

into the soft hollow on my right hip.

Two hundred miles from you, I go sweaty

to bed, wake up rain-darkened & fertile.

The trees grow thick with distances & you say

you’re on the lookout for signs & wonders:

songbirds, damselfly, strains of old music.

September is wet & still hot. Smell of apples.

Taking you between my teeth. I see now,

why people leave their lives for this.