O Love, My Companion

O Love, my companion, from the sea I cannot hold you or

The sweet-smelling earth of your vanishing land. I cannot

Hold you, as I cannot hold the air I breathe -- or the clouds,

The night, or the sun. Sometimes, Love, you need a little freedom

And re-enter those silent depths where you lived before

Me and on a lonely isle, I wait for you -- shipwrecked, bereft of

Hope, sad as an empty room. But today, Love, you rise again –

Beautiful, luminous, naked – from the glistening sea. And the

Black skies are rent with your piercing, golden shafts. The

Storm falls asleep with the night. Only yesterday this passion

Raged on – a tempestuous sea! But golden clouds, your tresses,

Drift gracefully, now, through the clear sky. Love, my senses are

Waking, opened wide by the touch of sunlight as between your

Soft knees, some dark and ancient secret opens. Suddenly, Love,

You and I are together again, breast to breast, eyes shining

Wide like the bright rays of dawn. O Love, my Companion,

You have left me too often without your sweet kisses, but tonight,

With the return of deep blue twilight, your ripening womb will

Grow fertile again. As full and as ripe as a Mexican moon.

--for Aphrodite