I[)when you are shoulder brushing shoulder(blouse], by Lindsey Thäden

Interacting Couple at Water's Edge, by e.e. cummings (USA, 1894-1962). Exact date unknown.

                              [)when you are shoulder
                         brushing shoulder(blouse]
                                      dedicated to & inspired
                                                  by e e cummings
 
)when you are shoulder brushing
shoulder(blouse brushing pant
leg)i could give
 
meaning to slumber.i could give
meaning to the deepest
hardest flint of silence.   the first time 
 
i confessed
to the sky(the
sun forgot
your face)the first time 
 
i confessed
to the ocean(
waves swallowed
your hands)the first time 
 
i confessed my heart(you
kissed away my mind)tied
cruel & firm as helium.
 
here is the plumpest secret
no one knows
[balloon as moon,
the sun as june]
 
we touched
with touch
much more
than touch
 
the first time
the first time 
(th efirs ttme
 
Lindsey Thäden
 
Lindsey Thäden is the winner of the 2018 Luminaire Award for Best Poetry for her poem, "Waking to Pablo Neruda Pumping My Chest." Alternating Current Press called the poem "a jolting, refreshing read." Thäden also won the City of New York's 2016 #PoetweetNYC contest. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the Philadelphia-based Apeiron Review, The Coil, New York Metro, and Passages North. She is also a regular poet contributor at Vending Machine Press and The Ekphrastic Review.