Nina Corwin

On Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced in front of the whole group. Herod was so pleased that he promised her "I swear that I will give you anything you ask for"....she asked him "give me here and now the head of John the Baptist upon a plate"
--Matthew 14, New Testament

I kiss you, John the Baptist, compelled by your blank stare
Because your glassy glances follow admonishing
everywhere the dance takes me.

And I kiss you, John, the Prophet, for a taste of the apocalypse
Because from your lips flows the milk of millennia
sweeter than the seeds of pomegranates.

I kiss you, John, Au Jus upon a plate,
because blood is the only baptism I have to offer.

Because marrying martyrs is an exercise in futility
So a kiss is as close as I care to come,
Leaning close as breath because I need to know
Dear John of the Populace, does God see
through the eyes of martyrs or does He only give you talk?

Oh John, my Recalcitrant Conquest, your coyness of flesh
gets under my skin, so I kiss you: that sin be no stranger
from my lips to yours tonguing the honey of redemption
as I sacrifice my soul for the gospel of promises.

Last night, I dreamed I carried your child
and a will not my own moved my hips.
Birthing history is strange labor, my love.

I've played every veil of this village comedy
because lust is the singular trump card I was dealt
from this love-lousy deck.

And I kiss you, John the Modest, because
in every undulation, every sweaty pirouette or two
It was secretly for you that I danced.

Oh John Who Must Be Jaded
by this latest turn of circumstance
I tell you, dance may be my commerce
but my covenant is in my kiss.