Love Letter
Niku Rice
I have starved you of my admiration
For far too long, marred you with blind curses
And forgotten your sweetness, your valleys
And creeks marked by worry and dull sorrow,
Lost track of the miles traveled, the hands held,
The sunsets swallowed whole or in brush strokes.
But I awoke this morning ready to
Love you completely, caress each callous
And blemish with songs of adoration
As for the variation in each stone
Tumbling through rough streams for ages on end,
Never wishing to be anything else.
This beautifully deflated body
Has ebbed and flowed with rich golden milk,
Sustained the life of three radiant lights,
Built an empire of desire and hunger,
Bound only by the decorum of norms
And the shame of loving these tired bones.
The space between what was and what will be
stretched thin and translucent, like a secret
whispered in the dark. Rings in my trunk mark
time with echoes reverberating
between the orbits of “was” and “will be”,
A constantly shifting song of patience.
I love you, with buzzing curiosity
Over your ever changing landscapes.
I love you, round temple of pleasure,
My stupa etched with the history of me.
I love you, dear body, for holding me
Up to the mirror of this sweet moment.