Body is a bridge to July

by Ami Xherro

Lusted after. Hurry curl.
Woolenweep. Love forever
if you recall.
Surrender.
A night walk,
a billowed bawl
of wet tasty island tears.

I loved you then. 

You leopard you,
pull your pants 
down beside the bed,
take your nearness to lower cause,
your naked to open shores.

Jasper-tongued
vowels to bedroom window—
Out! out! out!

Bare is the night.
Our birthplace broke our hearts.

I need your body
but there is None—
only a vision for trying.

I need your body
crowded with itself.

O the quiet spread,
all surrounding,
breaks the night in two.

Ami Xherro is a poet. This poem is from her debut book forthcoming with Guernica Editions First Poets series in 2023. She is a member of the Toronto Experimental Translation Collective. Read and submit to her advice column, Hell but fun, here.