He listened for the gutturals,

            Changes of pitch and pace,

            The bursts that crested and 

            Decayed with breath

            To no avail

            Even as the angles shifted over time

            To gauge her gestures

            No perspective showed

            What he had heard that heedless afternoon

            He remembered how the street was littered,

            The stairs, the hesitation at her door

            Before she greeted him,

            Her eyes in disarray,

            The topmost button of her blouse

            Undone, the lawless freedom in

            Such desperate thirst

            And as the trail unravelled to a

            Tidy maze of punctuated nights

            He tried to tell her

            How he longed for the unspeakable