poem
“When he heard death rattle, Gilgamesh moaned/like a dove… ‘Beloved,/don’t leave me. Dearest of men,/don’t die, don’t let them take you from me’” -Gilgamesh
The Moan of a Dove
I can feel your heart,
Fluttering like a dove
But I can’t lift my hand to touch you.
I ran and hunted, crouching. I was
Invisible in the noise
Of the forest; upwind the deer can’t smell.
Muscles bunch tight
The red drips from my chin
And is sponged by earth.
I will never abandon you, dear friend.
Don’t believe the specters
I’ll follow.
Silver glistened in my hand, unsteady
When I first met you.
Strength of a lion and a king.
Bread and always water, fresh and clean.
All my hungers satiated by you.
We could run together through the sand wall
Jungle. Prey not of flesh but blood
Together we chase. Ready
The Pounce, breathing in time
My heart is sated. Truth, justice, glory.
I was born an animal to search with you.
A silent flutter,
The palpitation of wings reach me,
Or, they are mine,
Fluid, being absorbed, born again from whence
I died alone before,
Unexpected, a wilderness for an animal,
Dark and warm and damp.
Seen in and away by you, the first time, who
Embodied my world.
You bear a stinging thundercloud on you
Shoulder; I feel the tears
But we can’t brush it away-
Dark and consuming,
It won’t be brushed away.
I will live forever
Where the part of you that dies.
The Moan of a Dove
I can feel your heart,
Fluttering like a dove
But I can’t lift my hand to touch you.
I ran and hunted, crouching. I was
Invisible in the noise
Of the forest; upwind the deer can’t smell.
Muscles bunch tight
The red drips from my chin
And is sponged by earth.
I will never abandon you, dear friend.
Don’t believe the specters
I’ll follow.
Silver glistened in my hand, unsteady
When I first met you.
Strength of a lion and a king.
Bread and always water, fresh and clean.
All my hungers satiated by you.
We could run together through the sand wall
Jungle. Prey not of flesh but blood
Together we chase. Ready
The Pounce, breathing in time
My heart is sated. Truth, justice, glory.
I was born an animal to search with you.
A silent flutter,
The palpitation of wings reach me,
Or, they are mine,
Fluid, being absorbed, born again from whence
I died alone before,
Unexpected, a wilderness for an animal,
Dark and warm and damp.
Seen in and away by you, the first time, who
Embodied my world.
You bear a stinging thundercloud on you
Shoulder; I feel the tears
But we can’t brush it away-
Dark and consuming,
It won’t be brushed away.
I will live forever
Where the part of you that dies.