Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
The Price of Kissing is Your Life
by Timothy Liu
His kisses are better than books.
One kiss is better than all
of War and Peace. His tongue
down my throat makes me forget
about the Great White Whale
and all of the gospels. Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John are dead
words compared to his cock
that comes alive in my mouth.
He is loaves and fishes, water
into wine. He nails my body
to the cross of him. Together
we sail to Patmos and rewrite
the Revelation. Better than
Penelope trapped on an Ithaka
of her own making. Or Dante
where the blood of black ewes
flowing into the fosse are just
juices pearling out of cock slit
staining our lips—wet desire
bringing driest parchment back
to life. There will be more
than plenty of time to peruse
great passages bound in
leather tomes when our dust
has been mingled back into
the earth. Let someone else
read about what we were,
imagine better times than ones
they have known. His kisses
are better than all of Sappho
and Catullus combined. He
requires no translation. You
just have to show up and pray
each morning that he too
will be there, more naked
than the Song of Songs will
ever be. Good God! Is it
any wonder how Paolo
and Francesca gazed long
and hard into each other’s eyes
and read no more that day?
Copyright © 2025 by Timothy Liu. This poem was originally published in the Georgia Review (Spring 2025).
About the Author
Timothy Liu‘s most recent books of poems are Down Low and Lowdown and Luminous Debris, both out from Barrow Street. A reader of occult esoterica, he teaches at SUNY New Paltz and Vassar College.
Queer Poem a Day
Queer Poem-a-Day is founded and co-directed by poet and professor Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Library and host of the Deerfield Public Library Podcast. Music for this fifth year of our series is “L’Ange Verrier” from Le Rossignol Éperdu by Reynaldo Hahn, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.
