Four Songs of Devotion
after Mirabai
1.
Love has tinctured the soles of my feet
the hue of the One Who Springs From Tongues.
When I sang the range of notes in the mountains,
it was only scales and arpeggios.
Hearing Her tonic, I toss as melody in the wind.
Let those whose Beloved is mute clamor at doors.
Mine hums in the smallest cells, as stars within eyes.
2.
If we could reach Her through a diet of krill,
I would have asked to be born a blue whale in this life.
If we could reach Her through the statuesque hunt
for a lizard among the bird of paradise plant, then surely
the saints would have been egrets when they descended.
If reading oak with our hands could show us the way,
I would have transcribed the ravines of its bark
in both rainfall and drought. Only tears and sweat
fallen into the well of peace will bring you to Her.
3.
With the heel of Her palm
She presses into me
mango that I am
to feel if ripe
then cuts to my pit
undresses my peel
holds me to Her mouth like an ocarina
and plays
4.
I smoldered
and at last have burst
as trapped sap
freed from firewood
o brief ember
dispelled into sky
Bradley Samore has worked as an editor, writing consultant, English teacher, creative writing teacher, basketball coach, and family support facilitator. His writing has appeared in The Florida Review, Carve, The Dewdrop, and other publications. He is a winner of the Creative Writing Ink Poetry Prize. Website: www.BradleySamore.com
Amethyst Review 