your shoulder

I like this photo.
Her shoulder features, prominently. Her hair,
beginning to stick, with the humidity and rain,
     IS so beautiful, against the glow of her bare
shoulder.

In the background, their smiles. Hers,
especially full.
Of so much.     You want to ask her what all it holds.
   And perhaps you’d like to borrow it sometime.

Maybe it’s a bit weird, to like
a photo of a shoulder so much but,
to me
   that’s the thing
     about having a lover.

We get to know each others’ bodies
intimately.
     We get to look at things
like shoulders,
     or ribs and collarbones
to really see them
no need of mirrors and things.
     We get to admire
         their tendons.
We get to study their toes.

And then we get to find places     in and on
      their body       for our own.
Oh my hand is quite at home in this slant of
                   her side.
My head fits just right in this nook of his chest.
       Beat, beat goes the heart.
My fingers are dancing along
                  your spine.
one vertebrae       
                        at a time.

I did not know I could admire a shoulder
            SO MUCH.
’til I met yours.