Poems

Six Variations on Love

I
 
Love
comes along like an onerous bundle
that cannot be carried for long
without ending in cursing.
 
II
 
Love
comes along like a candle flame
or like the sun that shines in the sky:
we watch it falter, later flare up
we watch its birth, to return another day.
 
III
 
Love
is wild honey that seeps from a tree,
sap of tender maize-cob generous at dawn,
sap that runs
through the intimate garden of a woman.
 
IV 
 
The flower of the fig tree is love.
The iguana trickster or hand of a goddess,
it announces its presence to the heart
but we never see it.
 
V
 
Love
goes and comes like the night.
When it goes it flees with a slice of the soul.
When it comes it ransacks
what's left of the heart.
 
 VI
 
 Love
blooms without losing sleep
like illness
it doesn't understand worries
like death.