Ethos.

1
One tall drink of water
one taller cup of coffee
one mug of beer. That's the tallest.
This is the best.
I'm not afraid of the worst.

2
Close the door and open your eyes before you settle.
If we sit on the sofa it goes without saything that
an indentation will remain after we leave for other realms
or simply for the outside balcony.

3
This older wiser one in front of me speaks ethics,

but I want to think of the ethics
where we touch fingertip and nail
sensitive nerve endings, electrified
through currents, a mess of tangled wires,
lightbulbs.

You light up my eyes like some sort of electric luminescence
like seeing glow worm caverns and caves carved and ruptured
by flash floods, by rivers from paleolithic times. Before my birth.
See me trying to tell you about rivers
with a river of words and furrows of my mouth,
of my brow,
of my palate at the back of my mouth.

4
Powerful obligations of hospitality he says.
Care for the poor bloke on my porch he says. Sure.
Come and let me hold you on my porch,
let me let you hold me, something I must do:
this is my code of ethics.

The sofa
two stained mugs
a cigarette and a half
getting it right in the way
our lips vibrate, hesitate, wait and
touch.