First We Loved As Children

and when our twisting lives led us
to meet again, we found the instinct
of our innocence drove us still.
We slipped the clothes of adulthood down
from each other’s tired shoulders and,
weary of intimacies whispered
to any bodies but these,
we healed each other instead
with open-mouthed kisses
pressed to the wounds of battle
and lonely.

-M.