What Carnal Love Is

It starts underneath

In the soles of our feet

That's what carnal love is
A ripple barely detectable
But steadily rising

Soon enough
It overcomes us 

Building sudden consensus

Among arms hips and legs

Achieving irresistible sway

This and that being perfectly matched

Synched to the ocean's heaving

Every molecule spinning
In its own graceful way

Straining higher

Until the amplitude

Quite suddenly

Exceeds our reach

And we become

The crashing wave

Hurtling forward

Onto the shoreline

Or the bedsheets
As the case may be

And when the wave

Has been spent

And the waters retreat

We feel the release 

Passing back through 

 The soles of our feet

Toes wriggling

Sands shifting

Now reattuned to

The gentle rippling

 Underneath

What carnal love is
With the perspective of age
More omphalic than phallic
Less urgent yet
Far more engaged