On Nights Like This

On nights like this,
when the cold breeze from the window,
softly slips across my bare back,
leaving goosebumps and gossamer kisses,
soft as your lips in the summer,
warm as your heart in the winter,
a hearty fire roaring in my loins,
fed stick by stick across an ocean,

on nights like this,
when children’s chatter fills the night,
when pretend adults’ talk turns trite
cringing at every last invite,
I turn to the open blackness of the sky,
to the cold, blue stars, shivering in the distance,
for warmth only your existence,
only our persistence.

On nights like this,
I had you.