I did not mean to create them.
I was grieving.
The earth watched me
the way a body watches another
before the first touch—
expectant,
open,
willing to be changed.
Adonis—
my beautiful ruin,
my brief eternity.
I knelt and pressed my palms into
its dark mouth.
Not tears—
heat fell from me.
Desire with nowhere to go.
I coaxed red from darkness,
heart-shaped,
strawberries rising from the soil—
they were not innocent,
they knew what they were for.
I tasted one
and knew that desire would never
again be clean.
That sweetness could ache
and pleasure could bruise.
When you bite into them now—
slowly,
your pulse both runs and answers,
the deepest,
most delectable of agonies, of fears,
mesh,
that tightening of chest,
that is me.
Not love.
Not grief.
But hunger made beautiful enough
for you to kneel.
Photo credits: Pinterest
Posted for Open Link Night #408 @dVerse Poets Pub
28 Responses
That last line lands perfectly, Well done and beautiful! 💗
Thank you so much, Cara 🙂 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
I enjoyed this poem very much, Sanaa, especially the lines:
‘I coaxed red from darkness,
heart-shaped,
strawberries rising from the soil’
and
‘I tasted one
and knew that desire would never
again be clean.
That sweetness could ache
and pleasure could bruise.’
Thank you so much, Kim 😍 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
Very sensuous
Bravo
Much love
Thank you for reading, Gillena 💄❤️
Much love back to you ✨
An intriguing poem, Sanaa…The strawberry replacing the forbidden apple, perhaps.
Thank you so much, Judy 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Adonis is mortal Eros and the boy’s beautiful sister left me ravenous for ghosts. Forever. Amen.
Thank you so much, Brendan 🙂 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Divine and deep. I love the ending lines Sanaa:
Not love.
Not grief.
But hunger made beautiful enough
for you to kneel.
Aww gosh! Thank you so much, Grace 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
Beautifully written, Sanaa. A metaphorical treat!
Thank you so much, Dwight 🙂 so good to see you 💄❤️
The way grief turns to heat and heat to strawberries is stunning and that final turn, not love, not grief, but a hunger beautiful enough to kneel for. wow
Thank you so much, Marja 😀 so glad the poem spoke to you 💄❤️
This is just marvelous, I love how your love poems has started to include a bit more darkness…. I feel that love is almost like a prison sometimes.
Yes, it is! Thank you so much, Bjorn 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
F*ck, I felt this poem-sorry for the emotional curse word but this was marvellous.
The last stanza was so beautifully aching too that I had to read it again.
Thank you so much, Reelika 🙂 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
The lines: they were not innocent, they knew what they were for.
They really hit home for me.
Thank you so much, J Cosmo 😀 so glad the poem spoke to you 💄❤️
Poignant and sensual, Sanaa! 💙
“Not love.
Not grief.
But hunger made beautiful enough
for you to kneel.”
I like the possible allusions to Eve’s apple and Persephone’s pomegranate–and any other “forbidden fruits.”
Thank you so much, Merril 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Wow, so much desire. I especially like these lines.
‘I coaxed red from darkness,
heart-shaped,
strawberries rising from the soil’
a paean around the sorcery that love can conjure, mixing grief, desire and creating what you didn’t intend… Marvellous Sanaa – if you did not exist to write of these matters, we would have to conjure you into existence too…
Such a sensual and powerful write – Jae
I loved this beautiful poem Sanaa 🥰❤️