It begins with an image
Hands mouth eyes nose mouth hands
A coffee cup, a kitchen table, worn out shoes, a sweat-stained shirt

I place you: the timing of you
The mountains and valleys of your shoulder blades
Where you are young and I am eternal

I run the cycle through with you
All my women and I know so well each step
It is our own hearts that convince us men are possible

We heal each other wholly
The institutional memory lapses
And we begin again