i sink my lips into thickened foam
mellowing atop dark, sweet ale and then lean
lean angle tangle with a tongue tingling in the pale
a fleeting citrus tine
stabbing sharp and deep like a wire of hot sunshine
a flat smack of bitter in the back
like a palmful of hard light hiding in a crack
but over and around that a rich, spicy, arrogant fullness
fat like tan summer sunday solstice
oily like lemonsized drops of hard-won mayday
effervescent like the shine on karmic orange pips
and i take this river
into my mouth like i’m absorbing her skin between
my lips
a sliver of a sip
that expands from the tip
into a mango sized simmering of sweet
nurse on your essence
like a swollenwarm wafer
of brassy, ocean-stirred nectarine meat