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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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The Danforth Review is produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All content is copyright of its creator and cannot be copied, printed, or downloaded without the consent of its creator. The Danforth Review is edited by Michael Bryson. Poetry Editors are Geoff Cook and Shane Neilson. Reviews Editor is K.I. Press. All views expressed are those of the writer only. International submissions are encouraged. The Danforth Review is archived in the National Library of Canada. ISSN 1494-6114. 

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $19.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada. Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 19,1 millions de dollars l'an dernier dans les lettres et l'édition à travers le Canada.