A Smile and a Shiver

Are you going to
Make love to me?
She asked.

Her eyes never moved
Stayed locked on mine
A smile and shiver
In her blue pools.

It’s been so long.
So are you, James?
Will you?

She came to me the way dewy mist
Falls upon the land
When days heat
Fades
And the cool of evening
Lays peaceful and still.

She lay in my arms
For hours
Until cicadas
Buzzed in the trees.

It was not sex.
It was not sensual.
It was compassion
And mercy
For both of us.

In time, her ragged breath gentled.

She died
Three months later
Savaged by the cancer
That was claiming her
Even as she lay with me.

She lays with me still
A memory of a woman
Who touched me where
Lovers cannot reach.