She could break a mountain with a sigh
And bend time like a snake coiling
around the wrist and upper arm of a belly dancer
She could dry up the ocean with a look
And twist my worming veins around my
heart like barbed wire stuck in the flesh of a deer that I saw on the
side of the road bleeding out
I should find my way back home
But she will sneak up behind me and
trace the miles with chalk like the outline of a murder victim
I should make her something nice and
shiny
But all I can conjure up this rotten
mass of sounds and shapes and little larvae crawling out my ears as
my brain drains out of my nose
I'm still trying to get home, and fall
before her alter
Steady on, hold fast, the road gets
narrow up ahead
Hold fast, steady on, the world ends
just over that hill
Steady on, hold fast, the dirt gets a
little sticky around here
Hold fast, steady on, the tree all look
lonely and sad out here
I'm still trying to come home, and fall
before her alter
She could plant an orchard with her
hands
And spin webs like silk white linen
embroidered with one liners and trivia facts
She could skin a horse with her mouth
And sharpen sticks with the stones she
gathered from the river, like a shepherd boy off to kill giants
She could speak to the mud with her
feet
And guide the little ones to safety and
warmth and good clean beds with high thread count sheets
She could pluck a star from the sky
with a wink
And settle the storm like Jesus walking
on the water, even as I take my eyes away from her face
