Lector

Lector, familiar of deserts
Where the burning reigns, while you
Were baring skin to naked earth,
I perused Proust, taking each delicate sentence
Between my lips, mouthing
The r's, sighing the ou's, letting the languor
Of limpid l's dribble down my chin and drip
Off my bare chest; in other words I was perfuse
With language, I tongued
His meandering syntax, I gagged on his obtuse
Locutions, long and cool as the shade
Of a beech on a hot summer's day – so keep
My secret meaning, reading never held the key.