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222 A Face to Meet the Faces Salome Gives Seven Explanations for a Kiss Nina Corwin On Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced in front of the whole group. Herod was so pleased that he promised her “I swear that I will give you anything you ask for”...she asked him “give me here and now the head of John the Baptist upon a plate” —Matthew 14 I kiss you, John the Baptist, entranced by your blank stare Because your glassy glances follow admonishing everywhere the dance takes me. And I kiss you, John the Prophet, for a taste of the apocalypse Because from your lips flows the milk of millennia sweeter than the seeds of pomegranates. I kiss you, John Au Jus upon a plate, Because blood is the only baptism I have to offer. Because marrying martyrs is an exercise in futility So a kiss is as close as I care to come, Leaning close as breath because I need to know Dear John of the Populace, does God see through the eyes of martyrs or does He only give you talk? Oh John, my Recalcitrant Conquest, your coyness of flesh gets under my skin, so I kiss you: that sin be no stranger from my lips to yours tonguing the honey of redemption as I sacrifice my soul for the gospel of promises. Last night, I dreamed I carried your child and a will not my own moved my hips. Birthing history is strange labor, my love. 223 As It Was Written I’ve played every veil of this village comedy because lust is the singular trump card I was dealt from this love-lousy deck. So I kiss you, John the Modest, because in every undulation, every sweaty pirouette or two It was secretly for you that I danced. Oh John Who Must Be Jaded by this latest turn of circumstance I tell you, dance may be my commerce but my covenant is in my kiss. ...

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