I Crave Your Mouth

Sonnet XI

“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.                        

Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.                                  
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day . I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body, the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.”

― Pablo Neruda


Commentary:

One of my favorite poems from Pablo Neruda's book, 100 Love Sonnets. Its a poem that I read every so often. I've always wondered what such love is like, to crave the entirety of another being. Consuming the whole of a lover and being driven mad by such emotions. There's a human longing for comfort, a longing for close intimacy, and a longing for an unnerving bond. The hunger in the poet fuels his hunt in turn drives him mad pacing around for his lover's hot heart.

That Alternative Black Girl

To the gamer Black girls who love playing an intense games of the Walking Dead, Mortal Kombat, and the Legend of Selda I see you.
To the Black girls who dance and jam to alternative music, bounces her head to Bloc Party, sings along to Sia, and dances to electronic dance music circa 90s cue Enigma, I see you.
To the Black girls who love all things gardening in her house building a homestead, on her apartment balcony, or on her back porch area of her trailer. She delights in pickling food,  preserving them in jellies and sugars, and selling them bottled in mason jars in the farmer market, I see you.
To the Black girl learning something other than French or Spanish like Arabic, Swahili, or Chinese, because well... there are many more languages outside of English, Spanish, and French okay...I see you and salute you.
To the Black girl who was a badass skater girl well before Avril Lavigne made it popular in her song, I see you and I wish you could teach me how to skate.
To the Black girl who's a free spirit lighting the soy candles in her bedroom and reading poetry books by Rumi and Pablo Neruda, I see you and I enjoy reading my poetry early in the morning.
To the Black girl who's fond of kpop and can sing all the words to Wonder Girls "So Hot" with a slight Korean accent, I see and hear you and will sing right along with you.
To the Black girl who who flirts with any nice boy who tickles her fancy, dates whomever she wants, and marries her hearts love because its in her best interest to do so, I see you. I see you and applaud you for being in your own self interest and not in the interest of others... I see you my sister and I welcome you with open arms and an open heart of love.