the first time he kissed me
i tasted fire and bitter orange
my tongue burnt and tingling
with a mixture of fear and desire
darted in and out of his mouth 

a small bird fluttering in the
confusion of heat and ownership
suspended in midair
wanting to be caught
wanting to soar up to the sun 

the next time he kissed me
we lay in the sweat of mingling
driftwood colliding in the salt
of a tide coming in going out
an endless equipoise of nowhere 

the last time he kissed me
his teeth were broken
his smile a scarlet gash
as he mumbled you're steel
coated in bittersweet chocolate 

RC deWinter’s poetry is anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (New York Times, 2/2017), Cowboys & Cocktails (Brick Street Poetry, 4/2019), Nature In The Now (Tiny Seed Press, 8/2019), Coffin Bell Two (3/2020), in print in 2River, Adelaide Magazine, Event Magazine, Genre Urban Arts, Gravitas, Kansas City Voices, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, Night Picnic Journal, Nightingale & Sparrow, Prairie Schooner and Southword among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.