Country of Love Poetry
for G.M.

write you a poem here and now
you'll see the earlier ones later

love up against me
like weight a trainer
with all his force, with all his might,
throws to boxer in his care

boxer he is preparing for a fight
a bout, a championship match
and wants him, without a doubt,
to win

Gladys,
with what force you fling love to me
up against me and I must catch it
or be knocked down or knocked over

what does love weigh
as much as a punching bag
or is love as light as a beach ball

this is exactly what I have been avoiding feeling
this is exactly where I had been avoiding going
ever since you happened into my senses in Havana

we were in that garden,
planting trees on the premises of that house
dedicated to Ernesto "Che" Guevara

“I've published 13 books,” I said
to who I was in conversation with beside me
and you said, “That’s a lot!” in the sweetest voice

I turned and beheld the sweetest face
you wondered off the instant after
and my eyes followed and I was informed
that you were married,
that you had two daughters
and I groaned, disappointed
that already you were taken

my heart, with every encounter
wanted to gallop and I held back
the horses of my heart

with my most recent message from you
those horses of my heart
have broken their reins, their leather straps
and galloped forth and whinnied
and got up on their two back hooves

I screamed with them too
in response to your concluding
term of endearment,
“Sweetheart!” you called me
and that was too much to contain

I asked you once, do you recall
it was that nigh on the bus together
you and I in conversation
going through the dark from Las Terrazas
back to where we lived in Havana

what do you do or what do you erect
to prevent someone who might be inclined to
from falling in love with you

you laughed it off, brushed it aside
it was nothing you suggested
you needed be concerned about

you are so modest
you say you do not even see
that you are pretty to a degree
that it is for some unbearable to behold

I was hinting at the fact that
I was even then experiencing symptoms
of the affliction of being in love
of falling in love with you

I wanted you to know
that it could happen
I was begging you to shut your blinds
to shut me out

asking you to save you and to save me
but you were then and you've been since
cruel, merciless

making yourself as lovely, as sweet as can be
you have been divine to me
and what am I to do but fall down weak
collapse in a heap at the feet of loveliness

what then, what now,
how ever can you or can we
deal with that, with husband
two daughters, more than two hand
and two arms full already

how can I expect you to embrace me
or to make me tea
or to butter toast for me

Jesus, I could kiss you
and love you and lift you off your feet

but is such love not redundant
to be carried away that way
with one with a kite to fly already

Oh God, Gladys,
you have touched my soul tonight
I cannot pretend that you haven't

I can go this instant, wrap my naked body
in your beach towel, one you gave to me

wrap it around me
as if it were your arms and legs
and you were bare too


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
10:35 p.m. 30.07.10