She dropped to her knees right before me
Face in the palms of her hands
Her dress fanned out all around her, like the way the river once overflowed the plains
Her curly black hair framed her face like a
sleeping lion’s mane. I can only imagine
her grace when her face is not burried
in the droughtness of season
The land surrounding her waist and my feet was
too sandy, too dry and too poor to be able to
secure the new seeds of our life
She screamed, hoping it’s force would take
away the pain of our reality, stuck in our
drying of land
Her scream entered my skin, forced it’s way
through my bones and flesh and nerves and what
more that I don’t understand or can bear to name
There, in the darkness of belly, it found
the germs of words that can bring forth the life
that is lying before us
And I told her
I opened my mouth, dropped to my knees right
beside her and told her:
Find the water on the bottom of the well, it’s
there under the flesh of your tongue
Voice your truth until all language disappears
Let it take you and cry cry cry cry cry cry
cry until you make it smell
like the first day of rain in May
Cry cry cry until the river overflows and
washes away all the words that were once
without meaning
It’s time my love
It’s time
It’s time to water the plants with your
moistness
It’s time to bring back the salt
to the earth
