slot between the fifth and sixth ribs, its scourged lids/lips probed by Caravaggio, up to the first knuckle, dis- believing . . . But say you plunge in two, three, wedge in four fingers, say its almond-shape admits your unopposable thumb, your avid wrist. Say your whole hand, having entered, grasps a complex clapping . . . As if a set of castanets were at the heart, here and improvising something hot and catchy, full of longing . . . Say your own heart catches on, catches fire, starts clapping back: a burning conversation heart to heart. Say this is death, this in your face flamen- co eye to eye, mouth to mouth. Clap clap . . . Your heels begin to stutter. Please no words. Put a rose between your teeth: this is life. Copyright © Margaret Aho. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOLD-SEEKERS by HAMLIN GARLAND TO JANE: THE INVITATION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY MY VERY PARTICULAR FRIEND by MARIA ABDY EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 28. LOVE'S TRIUMPH OVER RICHES by PHILIP AYRES A POEM FOR THE SEFIROT AS WHEEL OF LIGHT by NAFTALI BACHARACH THREE SONGS OF LOVE (CHINESE FASHION): 2. RIVER SONG by WILLIAM A. BEATTY |