A Style of Loving

Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

 Light now restricts itself
 To the top half of trees;
 The angled sun
 Slants honey-coloured rays
 That lessen to the ground
 As we bike through
 The corridor of Palm Drive.
 We two

 Have reached a safety the years
 Can claim to have created:
 Unconsummated, therefore
 Unjaded, unsated.
 Picnic, movie, ice-cream;
 Talk; to clear my head
 Hot buttered rum -- coffee for you;
 And so not to bed.

 And so we have set the question
 Aside, gently.
 Were we to become lovers
 Where would our best friends be?
 You do not wish, nor I
 To risk again
 This savoured light for noon's
 High joy or pain.

~ Vikram Seth