She
I’m a black girl, you’re a white boy
Summer sun to winter moon
I’m a believer of a kind
And you’re one of the chosen few,
My song the arrow of desire
Heartbeat of the vernal dew.

I search for you by day and night.
Is your number in the book
Of  procurers and concubines
Where the universe can look?
Give me the secret of your flight.

        He
The earth is open to the sky
Each is heaven to the other.

        She
Our struggle is for life and love
The daughters of the earth compete.
My breasts I offer to your touch
My life and body to your trust
We are the last resort of fate
Against the savagery of men.

        He
This house stands within the bower
Of time. No refuge in its walls
The bed may be of thorns or flowers.

        She
As a rose among the thorns
So love burnishes the light.
Your hands caress my soul’s yearning
And skim upon the waters’ face.
Your song reaches my ear bringing
Fears and longings of our race.

        He
Spring skips upon the hills and valleys
Fresh grasses hide the winter graves
And relics of forgotten wars.
Though the struggle never ceases...

        She
Love must always fight for life...

        He
Squeezed mid constant work and death,
It is a temporal arrangement
Besides eternity, a breath.

        She
Surely a momentary meaning
May justify the ceaseless strife.

        He
The human mind turns nature’s act
Into a labyrinthine tale;
The immigration officer,
The parents and the priests alike  
Lament our origin and skin
The dun mortality within.

         She
And yet inside the sacred grove
The two are one, the one is two,
There, we enact our last intent,
The mystery desire wove... 
 
        He
A fleeting nourishment and so...

        She
For this he came upon my soul
Along the road, across the heath
In airport lounges and cafés
Hotels of varying repute;
What does it matter where or when,
The devil’s work or heaven’s hymn
So long as it can make me whole?
He is white and I am black
My heart’s desire, my child’s fire.
My love is mine and I am his
A fleeting moment of elation
What more can we demand of earth?

I called to him. No answer came
I searched for him from door to door
A silent agony of birth,
His shadow on a distant shore.
My love is mine and I am his.
No faith can fill this emptiness.