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.