I first learnt it when, at age 13 I dropped a glass of it And it trickled through my veins As my father told me he didn’t know why he loved me
After that, every day I was kissed by sunlight I shimmered Like a pond lost in a forest of Thought that no one visited
I used to look at my hands and wonder Why I could see right through The sinew And bone Into translucent fluid bubbling Where blood red should be
But whenever someone deigned to hold My shaking digits, I felt the cold Of my insides freezing us both Eventually, when they could no longer hold My icy arms, They let go On their way to greener pastures
Then I would melt Seek the sun, Weep for joy at the torrents inside me That flowed again
You cannot touch this liquid life Unless your fingers are blessed by a burning Unlike anything before or after you,
I long to simmer in a scalding embrace, You whom I have yet to meet, You who will boil my insides until One day, I disappear Like a pond dried up in summer, Its filaments caressing the sun, Lost forever to the world below
Until after years, I will rain again on gardens That men will worship And whose beauty, (Nourished by a love that no one knows), Will enshrine our embrace for generations