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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions . . . thoughts of bliss, of hope . . .
long-dreamt appearances of wished-on stars . . .
like childhood’s long-occluded, nebulous
slow drift of half-formed visions . . . slip and bra . . .

Wan moonlight traced your features, perilous,
in danger of extinction, should your hair
fall softly on my eyes, or should a kiss
cause them to close, or should my fingers dare

to leave off childhood for some new design
of whiter lace, of flesh incarnadine.

NOTE: The title is not a typo but a double entendre. Keywords/Tags: sonnet, rhyme, heat, love, lust, desire, sex, sexy, petting, neck, necking, parking, date, dating, lover, lovers' lane, teen, teen love, teenage, crush, car, back seat


I hate Eros! Why does that gargantuan God dart my heart, rather than wild beasts? What can a God think to gain by inflaming a man? What trophies can he hope to win with my head?
?Alcaeus of Messene, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch




Have mercy, dear Phoebus, drawer of the bow, for were you not also wounded by love’s streaking arrows?
?Claudianus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Matchmaker Love, if you can’t set a couple equally aflame, why not snuff out your torch?
?Rufinus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



I have armed myself with wisdom against Love;
he cannot defeat me in single combat.
I, a mere mortal, have withstood a God!
But if he enlists the aid of Bacchus,
what odds do I have against the two of them?
?Rufinus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Love, if you aim your arrows at both of us impartially, you’re a God, but if you favor one over the other, you’re the Devil!
?Rufinus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Either put an end to lust, Eros, or else insist on reciprocity: abolish desire or heighten it.
?Lucilius or Polemo of Pontus, loose translation by Michael R. Burch



Steady your bow, Cypris, and at your leisure select a likelier target ... for I am too full of arrows to take another wound.
?Archias, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Little Love, lay my heart waste;
empty your quiver into me;
leave not an arrow unshot!
Slay me with your cruel shafts,
but when you’d shoot someone else,
you’ll find yourself out of ammo!
?Archias, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



You say I should flee from Love, but it’s hopeless!
How can a man on foot escape from a winged creature with unerring accuracy?
?Archias, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Warmthless beauty attracts but does not hold us; it floats like hookless bait.
—Capito, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Accept this garland, Rhodoelea, that I wove with my own hands out of beautiful flowers.
There are lilies, roses, dewy anemones, radiant violets and a delicate narcissus.
Wear it and relinquish vanity, for like these flowers you too will fade.
—Rufinus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Let’s bathe, Prodike, then towel our hair
as we drain new wine from the bright cups’ depths,
because the season of celebration is short:
old age forbids joy and soon surrenders to death.
—Rufinus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Behold Anacreon's tomb; here the Teian swan sleeps with the unmitigated madness of his love for lads. Still he sings songs of longing on the lyre of Bathyllus and the albescent marble is perfumed with ivy. Death has not quenched his desire and the house of Acheron still burns with the fevers of Cypris.
—Antipater of Sidon (circa 200 BC), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Erinna's verses were few, nor were her songs overlong, but her smallest works were inspired. Therefore she cannot fail to be remembered and is never lost beneath the shadowy wings of bleak night. While we, the estranged, the innumerable throngs of tardy singers, lie in pale corpse-heaps wasting into oblivion. The moaned song of the lone swan outdoes the cawings of countless jackdaws echoing far and wide through darkening clouds.
—Antipater of Sidon (circa 200 BC), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



You begrudge men your virginity?
Why? To what purpose?
You will find no one to embrace you in the grave.
The joys of love are for the living.
But in Acheron, dear virgin,
we shall all lie dust and ashes.
—Asclepiades of Samos (circa 320-260 BC), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Cypris, if you save those at sea,
beloved goddess, save me,
ship-wrecked on land and dying!
—Anonymous, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



My heart warns me to flee
Heliodora,
for well it knows the tears and fiery jealousy
she has caused me.
My heart commands, but alas!, I have no strength to flee
because the shameless hussy warns me
to leave her, even as she kisses me!
—Philodemus or Meleager, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Antigone, you once were a rich wh-re, but now you’ve become a beggar, while I’ve become a miser.
—MARCUS ARGENTARIUS, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Dioclea is a slender little Venus blessed with a sweet disposition. Nor will there be much distance between us, when resting on her flat chest I lie all the closer to her heart!
—MARCUS ARGENTARIUS, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Take off those fishnets, Lysidice, you c-ck-tease, and don't roll your hips when you walk! The folds of your thin dress cling tightly to your voluptuous body, and all your enticements are visible, as if you were naked, and yet remain concealed. If this amuses you, I will dress my erection in gauze!
—MARCUS ARGENTARIUS, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
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