My dear childhood friend, Elizabeth, came over a few weeks ago for lunch. We drank cappuccinos, regular coffee and Pepsi and ate vegetable soup and warm Italian bread dipped in olive oil and sea salt. We had very relaxing conversation. (this sounds like news from a little hometown paper from the 1920′s!) The best part of it was the poetry reading. Elizabeth has a car full of literature and poetry. It’s stacked all over her seats like a messy portable library. She saw my blog and my T.S. Eliot quote. She went to her car and found the poem that the quote comes from. I sat and sipped coffee while she read me poetry. It was soooo relaxing… I thought this poem by Benjamin Alire Saenz was incredibly beautiful. She gave me a copy. She’s a college literature/comp teacher! She has copies of everything!
TO THE DESERT
I came to you one rainless August night.
You taught me how to live without the rain.
You are thirst and thirst is all I know.
You are sand, wind, sun, and burning sky,
The hottest blue. You blow a breeze and brand
Your breath into my mouth. You reach-then bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
You wrap your name tight around my ribs
And keep me warm. I was born for you.
Above , below, by you, by you surrounded.
I wake to you at dawn. Never break your
Knot. Reach, rise, blow, Salvame, mi dios,
Tragame, mi tierra. Salva, traga, Break me,
I am bread. I will be the water for your thirst.
