RHYME Poem: Salamander Kiss, by Aryn Hensel

she plants a salamander kiss
on my dry and filthy lips
and I have never in my life
know such a pure, clean love as this.

the corners of my mouth are caked in dirt and grime and mess
and still her hands touch on my hips
and still my tongue touch on her dress.

she is a silky spit of snow
on a sickly summer day.
i don’t know how, i don’t know why,
but i’ll take her either way.

she plants a salamander kiss
on my flushed and aching lips
and I have never, in twelve hundred suns,
know love so bright as this.

it is rugged, it is dainty
and good even when i’m not.
it is grounding, it is earthbound,
it’s exactly how love ought.

she plants a salamander kiss
on my cracked and bloody lips
and I have never in my life
been healed so righteously as this.