i.

As the soul seeks death to obliterate the
walls of her palace, so the flesh resists
passage from this life to the next, presses
against another’s lips to absorb through torrid kisses

                    the scorch of eternity’s messages without having to

shed so much as pearls of sweat, jewels
only an envious body treasures, true wealth is
wisdom which enriches the spirit beyond measure, beyond
even death, this is what transgression teaches the

                    sinner, not to condemn the adulterer but to

listen well: desire is a lesson wearing temptation
at its side like a weapon to hide
heaven’s intention, god dressed in robes of fire
whose flames a restless soul is fanning, his

                    bride trying to play it cool on the

eve of their wedding, seeking to shed her
veil and be with him in the embrace
which has no ending, to know firsthand from
personal experience what no poet since the first

                    ii.

man has ever had any success translating, even
Adam’s tongue thirsted for a companion to help
him understand this misery’s mystery, tiring after naming
every animal his curiosity summoned and surrounded the

                    tree in the center of the garden of

his loneliest discontent, so you must eat of
that fruit whose name cannot be spoken, the
hard one whose guardian is a serpent with
a tongue which strikes like lightning, sapphire eyes

                    brighter than quicksilver reminding hungriest hearts to try

harder, to reach higher, the price of its
milk one satisfying bite, its nourishment transcending the
riddle of existence, greasing with freedom its wheel’s
endless cycle of punishment spent living in exile

                    infinite lifetimes, feasting on sustenance by which one

survives terrible things, fragrant with the sweetness of
a silence which reveals an unspeakable love whose
secret’s meaning no one else can deprive of
those in whose mouths its taste is known.