canadian ~ twenty-first century literature since 1999


Our Embrace

by John Barton

Sex without kissing is all

about form, lips opened

for breath only, the unnamed

torso heraldic, the pierced

right nipple a medal of valour

untarnished by the tongue

face turned away as hands

work past hips, tattooed

skin of parted inner

thighs and buttocks a raised

map without relief of whose

sensate territory no one

can liberate, scrotum fanned

out above the perineum under

the about-to-flare lightning

head of a cobra, with no

lines to withdraw

behind, no matter how

deeply any are

hilted, pale conscripts

eyes closed or blank.
 
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TDR is produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

All content is copyright of the person who created it and cannot be copied, printed, or downloaded without the consent of that person. 

See the masthead for editorial information. 

All views expressed are those of the writer only. 

TDR is archived with the Library and Archives Canada. 

ISSN 1494-6114. 

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada.