Lovers    by  Anna Kerdijk Nicholson

I'd like to add up the score
now that my time clock has stopped
tally them greedily and lusciously
licking their chests again
computing their numbers
bundling them out in the morning
making tea and sitting back
on the buckled sheets
and living them over
so they're absorbed in my cells
and when I'm asked
like you did, how many
I'll be able to deftly reply
now oh fifty-odd and feel them all
in me the rasping of skins
the saliva I must have swallowed
all part of me all indelibly apart

© Anna Kerdijk Nicholson