The scent of moonlight was trapped in my nostrils when
Chortles of the cockcrow overflowed from my ears and
drowned My eyes announcing another chance
A mere man-child
My lanky limbs begged the aching between my legs to cease
But I couldn’t help but think about her
She was licorice and smelled of nutmeg
Breakfast was calling
My grandmother would pulverize tablespoons
of charcoaled beans
So’s they’d simmer into liquid midnight
There was cornbread
Honey toned like my grandma Lina
Bacon
Eggs if the chickens were layin’ right
But I loved my sips of coffee best
Slurping her in
Her texture warm and wet
Echoes of a Carolina blossom
She became my tutor
and I learned to slowly savor
The notes of bull grapes and
juniper and
oak skirted in Spanish moss
My first kiss tasted like coffee
Now coffee tastes like my first kiss
Mornin’ comes
And I still ache like a boy.