You Ask Me Again

do i love you
i have told you
how badly
i differentiate
that i cannot tell
the difference
between an altar
and a bed
that blood and
secrets are the same
and great red openness
of both is what
i want from you
what i give to you
and the word for that
is the word for also
laughter
for singing together
for lust that is
without shame and for
bodies and minds that
match or do not match
but still and always touch
and do i love you
yes and inevitably
loving the smallness of the word
and its impossibility
loving the vastness of you
and what may become we
the you that you offer and the
you that is withheld
you that i see and do not
the intersection
of blood and
laughter
the secret and the good
forgiving dark
and can i tell you
apart from those
no

can you?

---

Kara Coryell