Turning into everybody

                                                                             For Gordon # 2

I was helping you die.

I said

You’re pure now,

Empty, made of stars.

You said

I’m looking for

My eye,

I’m looking for my breast,

My favorite leg.

You said

I’m looking for

The dancing princess,

My stolen wife.

I was helping you out of your skin

Out of your pain

Handing you over to the light.

You said

Tomorrow I’ll know my mother’s secrets

I’ll gamble with giants

I’ll meet my poems,

Dark holes of fury and sweetness.

I said

You stopped wars

You cleaned the earth

You freed trapped miners.

You were always pregnant

I said

You were always dreaming

You were always desperate

You healed our wounds

God knows what held you together.

I said

You are droplets, you are gold-dust

You are an egg now,

Ready with wings and bells.

You said

I’m floating over jeweled barricades

I’m turning into everybody,

Everything. 

                                                  -- Panama, 25 March 2006