I think "To Elli" is absolutely gorgeous,
and not really gender-specific.
Swap the female name "Elli" for a male name - "Larry", "Henry", etc -
and "between your breasts" to "of your chest",
and it works just as well, IMHO.
Not so keen on "Maria", which is not so original and
which does seem to me to be the male voice taken to an extreme.
Janet
Jon writes:
> To Elli
>
> The heat has stung the lizards numb, Elli,
> the white church scours itself with glare.
>
> Ecstatic mules devour the afternoon
> by the rusty fence where poppies smudge the sun like the blossoming
> wounds of Christ,
>
> and your arms gleam bright as dew on a dragonfly's wing, Elli.
>
> A god dreams on in the olive tree's angry womb,
> the balcony's shadow slices the street,
>
> and your body is sweet as a knife, Elli,
> your flesh is a casket of flowers.
>
> In the valley between your breasts I hear your heart pump molten stone.
>
> Enfold my breath in a rose of musk, Elli:
> in your black eyes I see my death, Elli
>
> -
>
> Maria
>
>
> Maria I want your bitter mouth
> Maria I want your breasts of dank loam
> your breasts of sullen ripeness
> your breasts of childbirth
>
> Maria I want the narcotic orchid of your tongue
> I want your eyes of treason
> your eyes of attack
> your eyes of the moment of death
>
> Maria I want to be washed up shipwrecked on your shore
> I want to be buried in your blood
> I want the venom of your passion to sear my veins
>
> Maria I want to be a universe unborn kicking in your womb
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Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
Poems at Proximity:
http://www.arach.net.au/~huxtable/janet/proximity.html
"When one acts in accord with the time, the yang energy
is expansive, like thunder going out of the earth and
rising forcefully into the sky, startling an area of a
hundred miles with its rumble, so that all demons flee.
The life-giving potential continues increasing, and the
earth is always covered with yellow sprouts, the world
blooms with golden flowers. Wherever one may walk,
everywhere is the Tao. No happiness is more delightful
than this." Liu I-ming, trans. Thomas Cleary
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