Food of Love
–Carolyn KizerEating is touch carried to the bitter end.
-Samuel Butler III’m going to murder you with love;I’m going to suffocate you with embraces;I’m going to hug you, bone by bone,Till you’re dead all over.Then I will dine on your delectable marrow.You will become my personal Sahara;I’ll sun myself in you, then with one swallowDrain your remaining brackish well.With my female blade I’ll carve my nameIn your most aspiring palmBefore I chop it down.Then I’ll inhale your last oasis whole.But in the total desert you becomeYou’ll see me stretch, horizon to horizon,Opulent mirage!Wisteria balconies dripping cyclamen.Vistas ablaze with crystal, laced in gold.So you will summon each dry grain of sandAnd move toward me in undulating dunesTill you arrive at sudden ultramarine:A Mediterranean to stroke your dusty shores;Obstinate verdure, creeping inland, fast renudesYour barrens; succulents spring up everywhere,Surprising life! And I will be that green.When you are fed and watered, flourishingWith shoots entwining trellis, dome, and spire,Till you are resurrected field in bloom,I will devour you, my natural food,My host, my final supper on the earth,And you’ll begin to die again.
Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash