by John Russell Monagle

Your soul is the sun
in mid-afternoon, 
awakening my spirit
as if it were a sunflower in bloom
in the warm spring day,
straining ever higher
to bathe in your warmth.

I am in soft quiet
of stars and space,
without a body,
only sight and breath.
Though I do not feel 
your caress nor gentle lips,
in your presence
I experience
ever renewing life,
as an infant does when
touched 
by a mother’s fingertips.

John Russell Monagle resides in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He retired from a career at The Library of Congress. He graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing, specializing in poetry. He has had numerous poems published, most recently in Sin Fronteras, High Plains Register, and the New Mexico Poet Laureate anthology of New Mexico poets for 2022.