{"id":219,"date":"2011-05-19T10:19:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T10:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue9\/?page_id=219"},"modified":"2012-05-17T01:39:49","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T01:39:49","slug":"salim-gold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/writings\/poetry\/salim-gold","title":{"rendered":"Salim Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isle of Desire<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h1>\n

As you reached down plates from a cupboard,<\/p>\n

And your blouse lifted, I chanced to witness<\/p>\n

A strip of flesh, that dawn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s albescent blaze.<\/p>\n

Desire<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dits pain\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbecame my daily bread.<\/p>\n

It was spring, on that isle, when you arrived,<\/p>\n

Retired, withdrawn, no longer wanting men.<\/p>\n

But it was spring, and our wine-fired voices<\/p>\n

Burnt up words, and Desire<\/em> surged like wild seas.<\/p>\n

You saw me looking.\u00c2\u00a0 A bitter glitter<\/p>\n

Occupied my eyes, tearful with Desire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Starlight splintered as I dreamt my fond flesh<\/p>\n

Meshing with thine til sonorous closure.<\/p>\n

Rebellious splendor!\u00c2\u00a0 Naked, pale goddess,<\/p>\n

You enthrone Desire<\/em>, set my king standing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Recall<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Those winds buffeting the isle were not sweet,<\/p>\n

Until you came and brought your smile and laugh.<\/p>\n

I saw you as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never seen une femme<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Une vieille belle<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201das spirited as Spring.<\/p>\n

It was March, but the winds, wild, spelled April.<\/p>\n

You reached down cream to feed wild cats.\u00c2\u00a0 I glimpsed<\/p>\n

Your cream waist, a-gleam like Aegean froth.<\/p>\n

I was in love\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto imagine you nude.<\/p>\n

You never gave any hint of feeling\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Except that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153last\u00e2\u20ac\u009d embrace, when I felt you,<\/p>\n

Gingerly, your ginger-red hair a-gleam.<\/p>\n

That instant was not love, just affection\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

A tangible amiability\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

But winter was, for me, now history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Selective<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h1>\n

Do we remember only what we must\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

When we recall when and where we have loved<\/p>\n

Or touched or laughed out loud like fools, giddy<\/p>\n

With Pleasure<\/em> and its plush satisfactions?<\/p>\n

Often, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dark wine and dove nakedness\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Your angular beauty, your curves swerving<\/p>\n

Away from clothes, while the moon swings from clouds<\/p>\n

Or the sun leaps up from the sea.\u00c2\u00a0 To warm\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say we swig sweat in our wet kisses<\/p>\n

As you pull me on you, and there I ply\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

While apple blossoms sugar an orchard.<\/p>\n

My silver-breast woman, necklaced in gold,<\/p>\n

But belted in copper, I remember<\/p>\n

We are lovers who rest but seldom sleep.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Boudoir Couplets<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Joy<\/em> should spurn Sorrow<\/em>, but lovers know both:<\/p>\n

Desire<\/em>, disturbed, stirs a poisonous broth.<\/p>\n

The scent of sex is garden soil and grave.<\/p>\n

To deprive of Love<\/em>‘s flowers is to deprave.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll serve you love that’s ripe and raunchy\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Risky as a curse, musky like whiskey.<\/p>\n

Ma belle vagine<\/em>, my “El Hacine<\/em>,” dear king,<\/p>\n

Likes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153El Kebachi<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201drambunctious fucking.<\/p>\n

Smash down my sex! Thrust your hips twixt my thighs.<\/p>\n

Mint pearls of sweat till tears silver my eyes.<\/p>\n

I’m Yogini, the bitch-goddess of Love<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Take me! Take me! until it’s you I have.<\/p>\n

Do you deem me mystic, mysterious?<\/p>\n

That’s fine: Who understands the universe?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201dLaila<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Anti-Exile<\/strong><\/h1>\n

My exile from you is unamusing.<\/p>\n

When will we know again our proud mingling?<\/p>\n

I want you with visceral explicitness<\/p>\n

(Metaphor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s useless, if not palpable.)<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a vulgar scribbler, tis true\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Prim, but dirty.\u00c2\u00a0 I like unabashed sex.<\/p>\n

A hypocrite is an imposter saint,<\/p>\n

A preposterous saint.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not me, Laila!<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m too antsy, my feelings too violent.<\/p>\n

I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shy from our truthful dirt and filth.<\/p>\n

Your skin is silk; your hair\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soft as feathers.<\/p>\n

You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a monument of bright bullion.<\/p>\n

The desolation of travelers is, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re<\/p>\n

Turbulent as smoke.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s me\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwithout you.<\/p>\n

Solo, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like an angel with dead wings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Stern Measures<\/h1>\n

Absent you, nothing is worth anything.<\/p>\n

Like Hannibal\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor Sisyphus\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI push<\/p>\n

Toward bright peaks of dreams, and discover<\/p>\n

Their capture\u00e2\u20ac\u201deked out\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis Pyrrhic triumph.<\/p>\n

As soon as I seize you\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand set quaking<\/p>\n

Our conquered, broke-back bed, the calendar<\/p>\n

Proves resolute in its dissolution,<\/p>\n

And rapidly we relinquish our prize\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Ourselves, until the bed’s a mirage,<\/p>\n

And we are wisps\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmere skeletons with hearts\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Or like Zombies, who crave Satisfaction<\/em>,<\/p>\n

To glut, glad, but whose guts compass zeroes.<\/p>\n

But each breath is a looted treasury,<\/p>\n

Save we save some to splurge on each merged kiss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

For My Companion<\/h1>\n

Accompany me, my good companion,<\/p>\n

For you are most excellent company,<\/p>\n

And make our singleness a mutual<\/p>\n

Compact that we doubly dissolve, coupled.<\/p>\n

Solo, we’re sundered; but as two, we’re twinned,<\/p>\n

And no more drift, but rendezvous, rooted<\/p>\n

In our routing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dour outing to a room,<\/p>\n

That we’ve charted extremities to claim….<\/p>\n

So many letters\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtoo many letters\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Have passed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand pass\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbetween us, echoing<\/p>\n

Spectral moaning, a substantial yearning,<\/p>\n

That’s dissatisfied in its Satisfaction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But we’re vapours, save we anchor ourselves,<\/p>\n

Merging in our converging parallels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isle of Desire As you reached down plates from a cupboard, And your blouse lifted, I chanced to witness A strip of flesh, that dawn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s albescent blaze. Desire\u00e2\u20ac\u201dits pain\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbecame my daily bread. It was spring, on that isle, when you arrived, Retired, withdrawn, no longer wanting men. But it was spring, and our wine-fired voices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":203,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"authorpoetry.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-219","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219\/revisions\/1214"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}