i am an ache of longing when
you crack and tell me what to do
and how on earth to pleasure you
like im a stranger to my fear

or fear takes no dominion here
or no shameful part of this is real
im just the parts desired by you
when you let my others disappear

so i train my dueling hands
you know by now they dont refuse
the teasing left the kneading right
on the healing of your hips

and i devote my afternoon
to discovering and recovering
your lips of lust about to bloom
until we name an even better middle


//

Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)

those (on the one hand)
fearing
lest they be hated

and those (on the other)
whose self-knowing (autoi gignoskontes)
is worse
through desire (epithumia)

// 233α

τὰ μὲν δεδιότες μὴ ἀπέχθωνται

τὰ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ χεῖρον διὰ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν γιγνώσκοντες