I Will Draw To Ravens: 5 Poems For Brooke Marie Poem by Christopher Anthony Leibow

“Raven was the one who brought light to the darkness”
Miwok Myth


One


My life is a LOVE letter home
caught in a dust devil

spinning wildly.
My hopes have been

mistreated by the waitress
with the bad hip

Our loves wear us
out till we are born

again in our
weariness —

that’s when
I saw you dancing

in the Laundromat
and called you out.




Two



If you open your dress
I will draw two ravens

on your breasts
and a 100 psalms

on your belly.
If you wear me

wear me passionate.
In the space where we

love, sparrows have nested.
The tide has risen;

how many stars
swirl at your small feet?



Three



Your body is water
quivering from my breath

Your eyes are two roads
that ask to be traveled

Your hair hangs down
for me to climb back home

and I will weave new
mornings from the strands



Four


The moon
has stopped

to watch us,
and dangles

her feet above
the water where

we swim.
She rises

slowly above
us, looking back

while the night
gathers up the

dreams of all
those dreaming,

into bouquets
as we drift

half awake
half innocent,

our nakedness
a boat gently rocking.




Five

breathe in
breathe out
now be still
with me
my love.
let our —
faces pressed
together
be the evidence
of all the beautiful
things to come,
so that in
our gaze
fate will
be helpless
and the birds
I have drawn
on your two
perfect
breasts
will abandon
the ground,

forever.






Originally published in Battered Suitcase.