We Are Not Strangers Poem by Eric Cockrell

we are not strangers,
you and i!
we have walked through history together.
and the dust on our feet,
be it from Atlantis or Peru,
glimmers in the starlight when we make love.
i made the ink you penned with,
you cut the trees for my pages.
perhaps i was a turtle, or a wild stallion,
and you were a mermaid, or a moth.
or perhaps i was branches gathered,
and you were the very fire.
or i was a prisoner of war,
and you the officer in charge.
or i was the plague, and you the cure.
the black man they hanged,
as you hid and wept.
perhaps i was the cross Jesus carried,
and you were Magdelene watching from afar.
or perhaps i was the star that fell,
and turned the oceans into land.
and you were the first trees born,
in the kingdom that darkness birthed.
or maybe i'm just an old hobo,
and you the shelter of branches.
no, we are not strangers,
we have been intimate for ages!