Across A Divide

i.
Beatriz

big woman-baby, a thumb in her mouth
this suggestion of helplessness
when she knocks me out
when her hips are a globe

able to carry it, able to spin it
I longing, yearning to be the axis of it

friction to make smooth
we’d have to lubricate

easy enough to do this
look at her in her dress
large patterns of blue flowers
against a black background

she alternating gyrating
once clockwise with gyrating
once anticlockwise

these two circles in 5 seconds
and our affair ends
and I must return
must play them over and over again
to remain erect

tried this morning, early,
without ejaculating
though I did come close

I had, I have, so little to go on
a split second
and an apparition evaporates

need her like the earth, as near as this
from sunrise to sunset, from year to year

this year is ending fast
in about an hour, it will be no more
like a cake,
not even crumbs left

ii.
what are they trying to explain that they cannot

what can they not say plainly, clearly

what are they always coloring red
with too much emotions

these people of whom this man behind me
here in church, is complaining

who run on and run out
and complicate matters

because of which,
he prefers to avoid them

iii.
Atlantis firecrackers going off,
celebrating a new year commencing,
I thought was something or someone
thumping, stomping on the roof of the church
or in the ceiling

has this church a ceiling

took me a few minutes to unravel a mystery

I thought of thunder
but not the right rhythm, not the right melody

then I remembered
how close Kemp Road is to Paradise

remembered
this is how they celebrate such occasions

only I am not outside to see the spectacle
I hear the noise, the annoyance
while we worship

Watch Night at St. Margaret’s


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
Written between 10:48 p.m.,
Thursday, December 31, 2009
and 12:16 a.m., Friday,
January 1, 2010