Being Known

Why do you fear being known?
I ask when he says
         I know him too well
           that echoing well deeper than his voice
He does not want to be predictable,
                              dull, uninteresting
But it is deeper than that

I know
the fear of being known is fear of intimacy
I know

I know this fear. I lived it
                    Lived it like the babe uprooted from his mother's breast
It goes back that far, yes
for all of us

We fear losing our mystery, we fear
        losing what makes us compelling strangers
         lest we lose what we fear most to embrace
Our intimate other selves
So we dance, dear
      dance with our fear and the Other
who might be mother or father
         in addition to lover

Know me, I challenge
stripped bare of pretense my body a gift
Here are my mysteries, touch them see
      how my skin pebbles
fingers playing tumescent flute
same song every time
yet novelty is not lost
                 right now
in the moment
in the primacy of here-now

Why flee this intimacy, savor it instead
like tongue savors nipple tasty
                forbidden pastry sugar-sweet
as carnal knowledge of one's beloved

I nurture you
          penetrate me
           Know and be known
Some things can not be lost
Some things will not keep