Poetry

Spring 2008

 

 

Clifford Browder

Rubbing the Penis with Ginger and Honey

Since rubbing the penis with ginger and honey
Assures erections
And black pepper and beaver testicles
Banana and egg yolk
Arsenic, marmalade and cloves
Are aphrodisiacs (so I'm told),
With a well-stocked pantry
We should all be primed for love.

Since radiance, so physicists inform me,
Is one of the ten powers of the universe
(The other nine escape me)
And the primordial language is light,
We should look for hidden brilliance
In stumps, rocks, clods
Fools and dullards
And speak only
Words that gleam and glow.

Since silence, ascetics affirm,
Harbors the Great Loneliness
Land of dearth and vision
And the darkness that is the home of the gods,
We should tiptoe
On its fringe of mystery
And absorb it
Like a starfish sucks a clam.
Silence: invisible but always there
Vast yet self-contained
Wise, deep, whole:
The undersong of life.
And since poetry is noise, I'll shut up.

 

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