You’ve ruined peaches for me.
I can’t eat one without thinking of your hands
dipping into my soft flesh, mouth dripping,
teeth skimming across skin, tongue lapping
at the excess:
greedy, greedy, greedy.
I am all rush and blush at a summer picnic lunch,
hands shaking at the farmer’s market.
Trista Mateer, “Peaches”
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One day, perhaps some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.
Wisława Szymborska, from “Nothing Twice”
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How can she says Jesus was a white man when he died the blackest way possible?
With his hands up, with his mother watching.
Crystal Valentine, from “And the News Reporter Says Jesus Is White”
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To my dearest love….
…. my brilliant Sun,
The world has decided….
…. we can no longer be one
So you take the day….
…. and I’ll take the night
You with your happy glow….
…. me with my cold & lonely light
It must be this way….
…. always and forever
They say we can no longer …..
…. share the sky together
But my nights will follow….
…. your brilliant days
I am right behind you ….
…. and I will love you always
So do not be sad my love….
…. please do not fret
For my reason to rise….
…. is in watching you set
So never forget….
…. that there once was a time
When I truly was yours….
….and you truly were mine
That there once was a moment….
…. when I felt you lips
If ever you miss me….
…. remember our eclipse
Ranata Suzuki, “A letter to the Sun from the dark side of the Moon”
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i can't wrap my head around the fact
that i have to convince half the world's population
my body is not their bed
rupi kaur, from the sun and her flowers
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I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
Mary Oliver, from “Starlings in Winter”
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In my culture, we know death intimately.
In Arabic, the highest expression of love is the phrase
“ya’aburnee” Translated “you bury me” -
It means “I love you so much, I’d sooner die than bury you”
It was used by mothers in our lineage who were so used to losing
their young in war; In my culture, we cannot talk about love
without speaking death’s name
George Abraham, from “Untitled”
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love your dirty corners, your
stalk-like legs and barrel hips, love all
the no and the no and the no
that brought you right here, to this moment
and love the yes. The yes:
the breath that found its way to you, built
a home in your blood cells,
changed itself to better suit you and for it,
tonight, you say: I was made to
breathe and move and give, which is to say
love. Love. I was made to love.
Sierra DeMulder, from “Tonight in Yoga”
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I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Langston Hughes, from “Tired”
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Last night I dreamed of X again.
She’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.
Years ago she penetrated me
but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,
I never got her out,
but now I’m glad.
What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.
What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.
What I thought was an injustice
turned out to be a color of the sky.
Outside the youth center, between the liquor store
and the police station,
a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;
overflowing with blossomfoam,
like a sudsy mug of beer;
like a bride ripping off her clothes,
dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,
so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.
It’s been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.
Tony Hoagland, from “A Color of the Sky”
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You will always be the bread and the knife, not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.
Billy Collins, from “Litany”
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I want the cottage. I want the
green grass and the tomato plants.
I want the peace in you;
the front porch rocking chair lullaby;
our cricket legs rubbing
together under the covers.
We can’t have it all. I know
that, but humor me. We can’t
have it all, but we can have most of it.
Caitlyn Siehl, from “Apple Pie Life”
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The trees you planted in childhood have grown
too heavy. You cannot bring them along.
Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Part One IV”
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I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
‘Eat in the kitchen,’
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Langston Hughes, “I, Too”
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Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
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#metoo
the sum of our suffering
our collective shame
will never be enough
for those whose eyes
are tightly closed
to the sins
of this world against
the innocent
for them the totality
of this ceaseless war
is nothing more
than a political statement
an unfounded protest
misplaced anger
a laughable hashtag phrase
they silence our voices
by shaming the victims
of violence and rage
it’s as if they think
we sought their praise
but when I heard their taunts
it didn’t matter,
somehow, I knew
the most courageous thing
that a victim can do
is to stand up for
those who can
no longer speak
and claim to the world
#metoo
Ranjini Malhotra
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but everyone had this patina
of slightly bruised longing, this shimmer of
I think I knew you when we were children,
this look of I’ve loved you ever since you were born
and probably longer than that
Paul Hostovsky, from “Everyone was Beautiful”
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