[1] I don't love, I think, Even myself, on evenings like this When the moon rises, half in shadow.

[2] At the dawn-lit waterfront:

Lovers desiring everything Suck on each others' bitten mouths While I pass chewing on a pitted seed.

[3] Even "I", the thorny wrinkled thing forgotten by rain, sometimes seeks To be doused by "I love you"s.

[4] Days pass without speaking a single word. The mouth, however, goes through its motions Sometimes even eliciting nods and smiles.

In the rooms, which stand in summer evenings cooling,

In the interlude between lamplight and firefly dusk, in which we walked

In between the torch-eye of the fox and the shyness of the doe,

In them I see time congealed like a drop of sweat on your cheek,

In perfect silence, waiting, for something to be said,

In between, perhaps, talk and its coda.

Note: Not a poem, but something written for an assignment, and also as an exercise to mimic live music.