KISS

I wish I’d been there 
when you first kissed for real, 
when you first felt that heat, 
and each time after… 
as evolution’s witness 
to your darling, Darwin mouth. 

How many of your kisses 
must have fallen to extinction… 
soft-bellied and shy-eyed kisses, 
sabertooth kisses, sweet 
kisses lost to drought and famine 
before these you bring me now… 

These that have survived, 
these which move and mate with mine 
with their low, cat growls, 
these that have in them long, 
wet strands of the DNA 
of every kiss of yours that came before.

Peregrine