The Enlacement By James Laughlin

There’s something holy about

falling asleep pressed close

against a beloved is it a sur-

vival from some primitive rite

it’s more than the huddling

together of animals in the

storm is one body a sanctu-

ary for another the enlace-

ment’s a vow for the future

a pledge not to be broken

now blood touches blood and

breath breath as if they were

hands touching and holding.

From “The Love Poems of James Laughlin” (New Directions: 58 pp., $14.95) Copyright 1997

Reprinted by permission.