The Ancient Love Lore

My poetry is often experimental, and ranging in themes. Here’s one of my latest:

I flirt playfully all-around—
teasing, ruffling, stroking, kissing
everywhere: clothes, skin, and hair,
but you, my love watch and smile—
coldly peaceful, blandly blissful!
How could I, who am so tempestuous,
Have lost my heart to you?
With every atom of my breath
I yearn to join you, swirl around you,
caress your shining face,
Climb you peaks, relish the tactile feast;
plumb your depths,
learn your secrets, your sorrows,
until I reside in every nuance of you.
But your love is capricious,
a waxing-waning tide—I writhe in despair,
tearing through trees;
leaves rustle anxiously to soothe my anguish.
I lash waves to hurtle against many a cliff,
sculpting grieving Apostles
Echoing my laments for infinite centuries.
You gaze unperturbed, boring—
Waxing and waning with cyclical rectitude!
How can you ignore
my helpless soul stretching, reaching for you?
My cursed feet struggle
captive of Earth, she’ll never set me free;
that’s the way the World be,
they say, that you hide a dark side,
that I am enthralled with a pretty face,
that my thirst will never be quenched!
If only your grace didn’t wax and wane,
If you gathered my embrace with half
as much yen, I’d envelop your dark side
and your bright, and love you so hard,
Earth would gaze amazed at my
Blushing Moon bride delicately robing herself
with the glittering night sky.

© Sumita Dutta Shaom