A Song of Dark Love

breathe through me
    black eyes, blue song,

breathe through me
    your dark silence,

I’m dying, dying, dying
    a black horse on a white mountain,

O scarlet girl, O the river
    of solitude,

you cut my hands with your
    sharp blue diamonds,

in my sleep

breathe through me
    I’m your eyelids

opening

your tender heart.

O scarlet girl, O the dark woman
    I’m looking through your
    secret violets,

apples and oranges fall
    on your broken vase,

silky night dreaming within
    your soul,

a shiny white horse on a black mountain.


June 28, 1987   
--Alexander Shaumyan