Beautiful (for Jules)

~ Harlan Didrickson 

Color me cinnamon 
eyes that bathe 
between tender lids
of burnished hickory 
and the cheeks
that rise and 
fall like the 
sea’s own swell
down the length 
of tawny throat 
and into the 
forest of chest 
until we reach 
the clearing of 
belly around which 
swirls the button
pulling me deeply 
in deeper still 
into its darkness