Tag: heart book

Oh Universe,
how am I so lucky to be your lover?
When I breathe, I take you in;
you take up my exhalations.
You decorate your forest of curls
 with fireflies,
don a cap of full moon;
in the heavens of your eyes,
 your soul flashes
  around me.

That sweet, hot spirit
 wound up in beauty.
Oh, delicate possession,
 to tenderly touch, to stroke,
 to let loose those pent-up sighs.
You demand I separate
 the spiritual from the physical:
 that is my desire.

Not that everything is good,
 but there is good in everything.
Patience and such faith
 cherry–pick the tartest sweetness.
That’s why Aunt Sally’s pies
 go right to the heart.

Though we shuck it,
 let us bless the whole wheat:
  it yielding the kernel
  and from thence the whole wheat.

I kneel upon your lips,
 hold my hand to my face,
 kiss my fingers,
 and press my little hand–kiss
 upon the stub tip of your upper lip.

I light my candle
because it exists.

Damn candle,

brightness piercing
through my tears.

From star to star,
from molten blob to smoldering ice,
so many journeys from hot to cold
to get things just right.
Ah, so many fields of foliage
 — waves of miracle —
each unfolding in their time
 to the sun,
wave overlapping waves.

When I wonder at my shoots,
or fuss at how graceful my leaves,
or worry how straight my tendrils,
I gaze around and reflect
 wherein I am a part of;
I am beautiful
 because I am a part of you.

Those schemes: so much distraction —
paper-cut smarts and then up in smoke.
Life is written
 all over my hands.
The ink: so much blood.

To possess an artist’s canvas
 I make space upon my wall
 and put up something crafted
 so well and is so bold
 it never gets old.
An artist has the whole world
 upon which to hang.
 Her most prized possession
  is new canvas
     or a person
     or a new tatoo.

I

Of this vast, radiant universe,
 I am of but one star.
Would the panoply be
 precious strewn
 were not each glimmer a signal of richness?
Of the multitude of criaturas on this round world,
 I am but one being.
Would humanity be
 a proud species
 were not each a beacon?
I count my cells,
        my breaths,
        my sunrises and sunsets,
        my schemes and dreams,
        my depths and feelings,
        my world that I take up
           and embroider.
Each human is created from other humans,
each star from stars.
I have craved to be more human, more starry.
I let it be
and the riches without
 are become within.
I beg no more.
Let me digest what I partake in.

II

Those indiscretions I was so careful to demur,
they are for the taking.
The paltry world bursts into color.
My so-called evil is humane life.
Everything is good like it should be.
My heart grows in this soil.
The evil name-calling drove me to starving;
I was desperate enough to take what ill-suited me.
What suits me is enough;
 perhaps everything
  in its own place.

III

Universe, thank you for the flash flood
 that canceled the trains
 that got me back to the metro
where I find myself
 as the sunlight streams
 sitting behind two young friends
one with a freckled shoulder
 bare but for straps, black chemise over scarlet bra,
 and a head whose mane is wild multi-colored orange,
and the other saying
 “I have seen a lot of things, too…”
 from the back of her neck’s tatoo.

IV