Earthly Love

Love Song (—Henry Dumas)

Beloved,

I have to adore the earth:

The wind must have heard

your voice once.

It echoes and sings like you.

The soil must have tasted

you once.

It is laden with your scent.

The trees honor you

in gold

and blush when you pass.

I know why the north country

is frozen.

It has been trying to preserve

your memory.

I know why the desert

burns with fever.

It has wept too long without you.

On hands and knees,

the ocean begs up the beach,

and falls at your feet.

I have to adore

the mirror of the earth.

You have taught her well

how to be beautiful.

I want to sleep with you (—Joyce Mansour, 1955)

I want to sleep with you side by side 

Our hair intertwined 

Our sexes joined 

With your mouth for a pillow. 

I want to sleep with you back to back 

With no breath to part us 

No words to distract us 

No eyes to lie to us 

With no clothes on. 

To sleep with you breast to breast 

Tense and sweating 

Shining with a thousand quivers 

Consumed by ecstatic mad inertia 

Stretched out on your shadow 

Hammered by your tongue 

To die in a rabbit’s rotting teeth 

Happy.

The Great Fisherman of the Sea (—okei)

Carry me slowly, life!

Slowly down your stream.

In a mountain pool 

With salmon let me dream.

Save me from net and hook,

Treachery unwound.

Let me read your book

Whose truth is love unbound.

Carry me gently, life!

Gently to your sea…

If I thrash and quiver,

Know it’s only me.


Painting: The Dust Weavers (Margarita Georgiadis, 2009)