Skin of Water Quotes

“This must be the taste of Language—
the tongue mapped by many colors,
parsed by the vowels of memory, the roof
of the mouth the dome of a world
circumscribed by consonants, whose edges
suggest the sour-sweetness of oranges,
the bittermelon’s green rind, the river-
scent of mangoes all the way to the grove.”
― Marjorie M. Evasco, Skin of Water: Selected Poems

“This is how I desire God on this island
With you today: basic and blue
As the sea that softens our feet with salt
And brings the living wave to our mouths
Playing with sounds of a primary language.
“God is blue,” sang the poet Juan Ramon Ramirez,
Drunk with desiring, his hair, eyebrows,
Eyelashes turned blue as the kingfisher’s wings.”
― Marjorie M. Evasco, Skin of Water: Selected Poems

“She had known ever since she felt
the miracle of his heart quickening in her,
it would end the way it began: her arms
gathering his hurt body again and again
into her indigo mantle, the shield of her love
bringing the world to complete silence.”
― Marjorie M. Evasco, Skin of Water: Selected Poems