"Feeling thy presence, I shall come out of my sepulcher...
Rise, softly moving creature, and let me contemplate thy beauty."
--Hafez

my hair grown too long for walking
I've polished your tomb with ends
all night with my sleep

marble shimmers my eyes
as mist parts door opens
your valiant stride


I arise, rinsed clean by your galloping dreams.
I confess: my empty hand is a sleep-thief,
braiding your hair with the minutes of tenderness
afforded to me by the meandering wind,
by the rush of your delicate countenance.


I have no curls
but by your fingers
sent from root to tip

touching globe's edge
I'll planet-wrap this day
amber-red your sky


This ancient skin softens nightly
as your visits shade my marble expression;
the graceful velocity of your bare footsteps
sends me spinning towards diminutive Mercury,
whose shy and eccentric orbit around the colossal sun
held its astronomical mystery until Einstein
unfurled the crystal-clear curtains of Relativity.
But even these sharp calculations
quickly melt into crimson dream-puddles:
flung by the centrifugal force of your smile,
I surf the time-rift of your eyes.


my iris loomed reflections
I send out to slip between your words,
pull back these clouds

our convolutions merge at perihelion
cradled in space-time's sepulcher,
paralleled our lines meet here

12/10/2007

Author's Note: This is my first collaboration, one between myself and Kathy Wilson, which was inspired by the Hafez quote above. My words are in italics. Don't forget to see the tomb of the poet Hafiz! Also, check out my new book! ;)>

Posted on 12/10/2007
Copyright © 2025 Tom Goss