Feel Forever

I want to know you forever
I don't mean wrinkles and grey hair,
though I know you will grow old in my arms
I mean the fingers of toddlers, scabbed kindergarten knees
to know the sweet warmth of children's breath,
the question of growing bodies
What could we have shared, the secrets of first grade,
giggling through clouds of glue and chalk dust
I want to climb into your skin at ten, feel your freckles as my own
watch as later, together, we change, love building
I want to know you forever, feel your alarming energy as my own
when we entered this world side by side,
bathed in the warm love of our mothers' wombs
I want to put my fingers on your mouth,
the press of your new teeth against my own baby skin,
the cut of red gums aching in the same light
I want to know you forever
cradle each other from soft baby hair through the young stiffness
and back to the silky drift of old age,
to feel you forever.