Five poems for Brooklyn Marie

“Raven was the one who brought light to the darkness”
 ……………………………………………………………,,,,,Miwok Myth

One

My life is a letter home
caught in a dust devil

spinning wildly.
My hopes have been

mistreated by the waitress
with the bad hip

Our loves wear us
out till we are born

again in our
weariness —

that’s when
I saw you dancing

in the Laundromat
and called you out.

.

Two

If you open your dress
I will draw two ravens

on your breasts
and a 100 psalms

on your belly.
If you wear me

wear me passionate.
In the space where we

love, sparrows have nested.
The tide has risen;

how many stars
swirl at your small feet?

.

Three

If you open your dress
I will draw two ravens

on your breasts
and a 100 psalms

on your belly.
If you wear me

wear me passionate.
In the space where we

love, sparrows have nested.
The tide has risen;

how many stars
swirl at you feet?

Your body is water
quivering from my breath

Your eyes are two roads
that ask to be traveled

Your hair hangs down
for me to climb back home

and I will weave new
mornings from the strands

.

Four

The moon
has stopped

to watch us,
and dangles

her feet above
the water where

we swim.
She rises

slowly above
us, looking back

while the night
gathers up the

dreams of all
those dreaming,

into bouquets
as we drift

half awake
half innocent,

our nakedness
a boat gently rocking.

.

Five 

breathe in
breathe out

now be still
with me

my love.
let our —

faces pressed
together

be the evidence
of all the beautiful

things to come,
so that in

our gaze
fate will

be helpless
and the birds

I have drawn
on your two

perfect
breasts

will abandon
the ground,.

.
forever.

Previously published in Vagabondage Press.

_________________________________________________
Christopher Anthony Leibow‘s poetry and images have been published or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, Lumina, Cha and Istanbul Literary Review. He currently lives in Salt Lake City with his cat El Guapo.

Object(s) to bring back to life: “I have been thinking about airships lately and stately dances on the decks of dirigibles all of us standing against the railing watch the sun fall into the sea.”