غار حراء

You are as dark as your name
but is there something more?
What of the one who’s not the same
minute to minute, for
you specialize in being unknown–
except for your shoulders or
your breasts cupped, or a frown
that melts into a self-approving smile,
when I am caught speechless
by your lips and bravery overtakes you.

I thought I loved your neck the most–
It has a fleshy resonance, a certain swerve.
But now, I think, I like the rest
of you. I have become a connoisseur
who hopes like Moses for a sign
and waits, expecting you to lure
Samson from his sleep with naked thighs.

And will it come, this final vision?
Will you make my life dance
like so many dervishes in fast
and furious step, until they chance
to say, Listen! The music’s done, at last.

Or will you, thighs clad,
retreat into my lengthening past,
like my shadow, like your mad
ideas, by what this love has cost?