E. E. Cummings (1894-1962)

i like my body when it is with your

1i like my body when it is with your

2body. It is so quite new a thing.

3Muscles better and nerves more.

4i like your body. i like what it does,

5i like its hows. i like to feel the spine

6of your body and its bones,and the trembling

7-firm-smooth ness and which i will

8again and again and again

9kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,

10i like,slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz

11of your electric fur,and what-is-it comes

12over parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,

13and possibly i like the thrill

14of under me you so quite new

Notes

1] Cummings wrote this poem for Elaine Thayer (Richard F. Kennedy, in Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of E. E. Cummings [New York: Liveright, 1980]: 194-95).