my body is a house with no walls (a pantoum)

The earth is dry and I live by wanting

it is not a violent loneliness                 just

defenseless                 in the moor of my opened body

all the places I felt your absence it                 was residue -

the sap between                 trees except I have never been

so raw, except with you                 the way the body moves

when it is in love is so tender                 please just

hold me                 touch me                 it is not so much

the drowning            as the attempt to rise

they tell me                 but I am always

mistaking the wounded for the water                 and the

earth is dry and I live by wanting                 like

cain’s wife and all the women without name

it was residue                 The way the body moves when it

is in love is so tender                 please

carry me                 it is not so much

the drowning as the attempt to rise