The body for my friend is a kind of exhibit
A riddle without end for my sister
For my mother it’s enduringly sacred God’s dirt
For my father an asset to be protected and conserved
In the village pond entangled among the fish nibbling my body
that was when it opened by itself my body
they stole my innards and on lotus leaves rolled and
rolled and played with them calling them, “diamond dew-bubbles”
I’ve heard grandma say that the body for her was an ornament
For the tiger the body itself is wilderness
For my child it’s a never-setting sun
To the lover a lake where the lotuses bloom
For me my form is a spectral horse I straddle
my self isn’t locked up in any of my organs
on the horse of everyday feeling I see freedom
For me my form is a spectral horse I straddle
to bring the flown-away organs flying back
For me my form is a spectral horse I straddle
Not female not male not in woman
nor in man is this spectral horse I tend
Fish Tank
I was a fish tank the fry spoke with
soft lisping lips and circled inside me
this was not the sea restless by day or night
the hoary moss-covered pebbles were
rolled and nibbled by the little ones in their hunger
the tingling pain of dreams against the body
bubbles lifeless hitting the surface
that night and with it your extinguished manliness
made of me an ocean
and the fry struck the wall, my little ones
The Fiends that Fetter Us
sister . . . still many more breasts
for us to mould as if from clay
in this era when living breasts are bitten
by stones or by the tips of knives
they’re like the grain that feeds our world
but no fences to protect them
and why are birds of prey rooting in those silos?
eating sunshine straining to draw breath
from an arid field
that old woman’s breasts
fiends that fetter her
hanging low
knocking against the chest
like dried-up history beyond the borders on maps
not unlike those fiends that’s why sister
breasts like freshwater ponds to drink deep from
let’s not make them vessels of unending misery
for a day at least let’s make those breasts stones
to use in slings
let’s wander with a solitary breast
and carry our sun above us
Tigers
I a male tiger you a tigress
and with love’s coarse mouth nipping cupping
sharp nails impressing the skin clasping scratching
to one another we’ll reveal
the depth of our power
the tender leaves of your eyes
the forests will show them hiding
I’ll give you my body
invisible in the firmness of the trees
and in the nights when we join together
the desire I’d kept hidden until then
for you
will screech and squall from my throat
the smell of screwpine blossoms emanating as if
from inside me from my hidden zones only for you
Like a spring breaking from mountain rocks
milk sprouts from your chest
the little ones will come mouths clinging
neglecting love I’ll lie there
and when you’re no longer able
to hunt me
I’ll come back to caress you
I’ll run my fingers through your fur
and when you’re struggling to brook my presence
twitching to become my prey
I’ll hunt and finish you then
this is how I become the tigress
and you the male tiger
