Behind hennah and kohl
a mirror of tears
You beckoned to me
and I entered your garden
at midnight
like a thief
or like a ghost
who hides in dreams:
Your eyes
beyond all
that love or pain
could describe
Your breasts beads
on a rosary
petal-like,
pearl-like
jewelled clay
breathing
their sigh
From your navel
to the valley of shells,
with a pilgrim's humility,
my lips' caravan
travels
and my tongue is a flame
aglow
with your dew
Oh dark milk of your branches
Oh scuplted waves of firm flesh
In your hidden abode this thriving flame I call mine
is one at last with its
everlasting
source
and bitterness
from your sweet well
drenches the rapturous dance of this night
with your pain
Give it over into my hands
and let it explode
within me
for I have come to you scattered,
and destroyed I have come,
stripped of beauty's allure
I shall live
no matter how fractured
Let it scorch me therefore
and burn me
for
I am ashes of ashes
drunk and nostalgic
with passion
and beyond pain itself,
anyway
But you beckon to me
like a nightingale in a garden of ruins
and our passion is from long ago
From a bleeding throat you sing
love's song tonight, sweeter
than ever
and it cuts into my veins
and my blood erupts into you
Cover me, love
with your hair
so that I be not bared to the moon!
Written on your skin is
truth
which finds no
consolation
And yet, this is a night
like others
and it's followed by a morning
that denies
everything
and little does that morning care
about the deaths that we die,
small at first,
bit by bit
until we are consumed
How can two
strangers be
so alike
you and me
How can you,
how can I
burn in the same
flame and die
How can this garden's
submerged well still bleed
In ashen wombs our love must bear
its crown of thorns, its bitter share
when life could be so sweet
strangers be
so alike
you and me
How can you,
how can I
burn in the same
flame and die
How can this garden's
submerged well still bleed
In ashen wombs our love must bear
its crown of thorns, its bitter share
when life could be so sweet
I am intimate with such thoughts expressing the way things are. There is so much to garner from your expressive, sensual, symbolic and deeply meaningful verses, Mahdi. Again, a poem that is worthy of many readings, each one perhaps getting more (or a different "take") from its absorption. Love and peace to you,
Regis. 🙏🍁