Border Walls

Now, again in the silent night, sequestrant walls, border walls like plants entwine, so they may be the guardians of my love. Now, again the town's evil murmurs, like agitated schools of fish, flee the darkness of my extremities. Now, again windows rediscover themselves in the pleasure of contact with scattered perfumes, and trees, in slumberous orchards, shed their bark, and soil, with its thousand inlets inhales the dizzy particles of the moon. *** Now come closer and listen to the anguished beats of my love, that spread like the tom-tom of African drums along the tribe of my limbs. I, feel. I know which moment is the moment of prayer. Now stars are lovers. In night's refuge, from innermost breezes, I waft. In night's refuge, I tumble madly forth with my ample tresses, in your palms, and I offer you the equatorial flowers of this young tropic. Come with me, come to that star with me that is centuries away from earth's concretion and futile scales, and no one there is afraid of light. On islands adrift upon the waters, I breathe. I am in search of a share in the expansive sky, void of the swell of vile thoughts. Refer with me, refer with me to the source of all being, to the sanctified center of a single origin, to the moment I was created from you refer with me, I am not complete from you. Now, on the peaks of my breasts, doves are flying. Now, within the cocoon of my lips, butterfly kisses are immersed in thoughts of flight. Now, the altar of my body is ready for love's worship. Refer with me, I'm powerless to speak because I love you, because 'I love you' is a phrase from the world of futilities and antiquities and redundancies. Refer with me, I'm powerless to speak. In night's refuge, let me make love to the moon, let me be filled with tiny raindrops, with undeveloped hearts, with the volume of the unborn, let me be filled. Maybe my love will cradle the birth of another Christ. Translated by Layli Arbab Shirani