The Similes

Kisses on the breast

like water from a pitcher

                                 - Pasternak

Kisses on the breast
Like a gift rising
Like a comedian
Attacked by the military
Like a brain bursting
With wild gifts
Like a book of
Unusual expressions
Like kisses on the back
Of your back
Like the end of specious similes
Like a test of much theory
Like the Book of Windows
Like receiving fresh
Paint in the mail
Like being fresh to herons
Like snowflakes on your eyes
Like old friends coming
Home alive
Like outlandish confidence
In a game
Like the poem each line
Better than the next
Like two surprises in each line
Endless that still
Must end
Changing your name and
Your religion, too
Like including everything
And yet being clear at once
Kisses on the breast
Like writing in a dream
And waking up in an envelope

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

(in: In Memory of an Angel, 2017, p. 27-28)