Desire ...

       [I called out:]

“Everything in a moment

Feels everlasting;

The only thing that lasts

Is that it's passing.”

Every act in its own flesh

Feels original:

For you, it is, but you

Are a sailing gull

 On a mountain updraft

   That will always be

     Coming past, coming past

       Off a cooling sea.

       And your feathers will catch

       As they are meant to

       (First downy, wrapped-in, wet, where

       An egg invents you).

       Your wings will throw down as your

         Chest is muscled to

           (Spasming in the nest for winds

             Just to tussle through).

             And your mind – so secret, yours –

             Feels desires pull

             After fish, after warm nights,

             (Both older than gulls)

             While I – a man on a cliff –

           Try to find myself,

         To own myself, to be my

       mind on a rock shelf.

       But I share my hungers with

       The light trail of feet

       In the dust on this peak, these

       Eyes as I retreat,

       This line for drafted water

     (In pipes buried by

   Some thirsty man, thirsting so

Derivatively).