"Desire," by Joy Harjo
Sorry for the lack of poetry yesterday. I was out later than expected last night.
This week, I'll be featuring poems from deep in the Ploughshares archives.
Desire
Joy Harjo
Say I chew desire and water is an explosion
of sugar wings in my mouth.
Say it tastes of you.
Say I could drown because you left
for the time it takes a blackbird to understand
a pine tree.
Say we enter the pine woods at dawn.
We never slept and the only opium we smoked
was what became of our mingled breath.
Say the stars have never learned
to say goodbye. (One is a jewel
of blue magic in your perfect ear.)
Say all of this is true and more
than there are blackbirds
in a heaven of blackbirds.
From Ploughshares, Winter 1989
This week, I'll be featuring poems from deep in the Ploughshares archives.
Desire
Joy Harjo
Say I chew desire and water is an explosion
of sugar wings in my mouth.
Say it tastes of you.
Say I could drown because you left
for the time it takes a blackbird to understand
a pine tree.
Say we enter the pine woods at dawn.
We never slept and the only opium we smoked
was what became of our mingled breath.
Say the stars have never learned
to say goodbye. (One is a jewel
of blue magic in your perfect ear.)
Say all of this is true and more
than there are blackbirds
in a heaven of blackbirds.
From Ploughshares, Winter 1989