Kismet Grove
sestina synthetica by TeriJo, Cynthia Duffy, Godking Heath Houston, Hannah S., Dewi, Indira Reddy and sestina master Elizabeth Helmich
Attraction borne on a tentative smile,
steeped in the scent of spiced citrus
In our nebulous beginning, we gauge the finish
with borrowed hope from ancient times, looking for that yes,
We’re caught by karma’s mystery
while the fates are complicit in our fire.
The swirling, swarming sparks of this fire
frame your face and ignite your smile.
We stand now in the scattered glow of our mutual mystery,
your scent reaches me as wood smoke, spiked with citrus
I amble closer to your lifting gaze of yes,
and the night loses all its threat of finish.
Slow now, darling, slow, the hand’s caressing path to finish,
touched, we borrow heated skin from the coming fire
as lips pose questions seeking answers, whispered yes.
I am caught by your vermilion, bent to gently curving smile,
as you kiss me, wrapped in blooms of flowering citrus,
inviting me to loose the laces of your mystery.
In this space, this borrowed time, our unfolding mystery,
we blur the demarcations of our joined lips, start and finish,
until we are overlapping petals in those blooms of citrus,
steeped in the consuming flames of our mingling fires
turning us to memories, like embers, warming our smiles
with the whispered word of our precious pairing — yes.
On Möbius paths we replay our yes,
questions answered only by love’s mystery.
Slowly, our spines mime our smiles;
we dance, skirting the edges of a finish
in synonyms we drink, breathe in all fire
burning all but the taste of life’s sweet citrus.
Through every moment forever more, sweet citrus
blooms in our mingled scents with a soft, sighing yes.
Each breath on delicate skin sparking unbound trails of fire
Come, darling, let’s delve deep into this delectable mystery
of passion that doesn’t age nor look towards a finish
That never ends, but always begins with a smile.
Pressed citrus drops of perfumed resin encase our abiding mystery,
spiraling gasps of yes yield under an indigo-stained finish,
night’s sky fire succumbs, to the auroral oath of a smile.
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These stanzas were also individually published by their authors:
