Moon Child

He told her
her lips
were like petals
on a rose;
that her eyes
shone – sparkled
like the stars.

She said
she didn’t want
to be like a rose
or a star – only
what they meant.

He said he bet
she’d been kissed
a hundred times,
and she lied –
said, ‘Yes...
way too hard
too roughly
too sloppily
too softly.’

He couldn’t
put back the clock,
but he could
win her trust...
a kiss was
just a kiss
when all was
said and done...

Let her guide him,
instead of assuming
he knew, by heart,
a map he’d never
seen before.
Like the moon
leads the sea –
takes it by the hand
as two lovers
combing the sands
for her own
uncharted shore.