Between Breath and Thought

A second poetic collection for Bhang & Renge

I. First Contact

Before your hands,
there was the idea of your hands.

They crossed my thoughts
with the delicacy of something
that knows it will arrive
but chooses not to rush.

Desire, I learned,
is patience with intention.

II. The Weight of Looking

You looked at me
as if time had leaned forward.

Nothing happened.
That was the moment.

Some gazes
do not ask permission—
they simply stay
until the body understands.

III. Quiet Heat

There is a heat
that does not sweat,
does not shout,
does not demand.

It settles low in the chest,
steady,
like a truth
that no longer needs proof.

That is how I want you.

IV. Almost

We did not cross the line.
That was the miracle.

The almost
held us better
than the act ever could.

There are distances
so charged with meaning
that closing them
would feel like a loss.

V. Thought Undressing Itself

I undressed the thought of you
slowly.

An idea here,
a hesitation there,
until nothing remained
but attention.

The mind, too,
has its way
of becoming naked.

VI. Staying

You stayed
in the pause after words.

Not filling it.
Not escaping it.

And I understood then:
desire matures
when no one is afraid
of silence.

VII. What We Do Not Name

Let us not name this.

Names hurry things.
They trap.

What lives between us
needs space—
to breathe,
to evolve,
to choose itself each day.

And that choice
is the most intimate gesture
I know.