To Alex

I watched you last night
when you ambled out onto into
cool Babylonian dusk--
felt the sun collecting heat 
off the earth in 
orange iridescent handfuls. 
It reminded me of our youth 
when our bodies were soft &
malleable like the silt of
the Nile. 
When we thought little of
the Gods and more of 
our bodies. Oh I do not
know myself without you. 
When you first kissed my neck
& I fell like the legs of 
Parthia before us.
Tell me Alex, what does it
mean for men to conquer?
I see mountains aching 
under the arches of your feet. 
I want to kneel down before
you, run my hands up your legs 
like pillars-- oh Alex I know
you are un-sturdy as any man--
what kind of stone is this? 
Do you think of me, Alex,
on a night coming like this?
Do you remember when Aristotle said 
we were 
"... one soul abiding 
in two bodies"
I disagree, because I know
your flesh like my own.
If I had the chance I would
take it back-- all the miles 
& the Calvary cries &
the cold night on the Egyptian
dessert-- I would take it
back & be a boy forever with
you in Pella--
Death has given me the
chance to see all time at once
& I listen as Pella fall
ahead of this moment--
the mosaic walkways will remain
& when the centuries have broken
open from the ground &
water flows forth from
all the rivers at once-- when that
happens meet me there in
the middle atrium where the pillars
still standing like discarded 
thighs-- not nearly as powerful as yours
Seize me there Alex in 
the shadow of the house of Dionysos

**Modern scholars have theorized
that Alexander the Great and 
Hephaestion were lovers 
As is borne out by their own words. 
Hephaestion, when replying to 
a letter to Alexander's mother, 
Olympias, said "... you know that Alexander means 
more to us than anything."**