“There Was a Time” by Louis Flint Ceci

There was a time when nothing else would do
But have your body firm between my hands.
Who was it that I loved then? Was it you?

The raw delight of drawing pleasure drew
Me deeper in pursuit of your demands;
There was a time when nothing else would do.

Yet even as I dove, a distance grew
Between us, stretching out like barren lands.
Who was it that I loved then? Was it you?

Or was it how our blazing passion threw
Stark and flickering shadows on the sands?
There was a time when nothing else would do.

Bone burns to ash, ash blows to dust, and you
And I shout questions neither understands:
Who was it that I loved then? Was it you?

Though rage and loss may savage all I knew,
The curve of muscle in your thigh yet stands.
There was a time when nothing else would do.
Who was it that I loved then? Was it you?

——

Louis Flint Ceci’s poetry has been published in Colorado North Review and Impossible Archetype, and read on PRI’s Living on Earth; his translation of R. Williams Parry’s “Hedd Wyn” was used in the BBC Wales centennial commemoration of Wyn’s death in 2017.  Ceci’s short stories have appeared in Diseased Pariah News, Trikone, and Jonathan, and in the anthologies Queer and Catholic; Gay City Volume 4: At Second Glance; and Saints+Sinners 2017: New Fiction from the Festival. He is the founder and chief editor at Beautiful Dreamer Press, www.BeautifulDreamerPress.com.