Caressing the Wanting Earth

bleak

from the cold winter
of your imprisoned
abandon.

I will nourish you

flesh to flesh

Bring you life
like the spring rain
and the warming sun

Caressing

the wanting earth.

I will fill you

slowly
completely

like a parched stream
after the
long
dry season
by the first gentle
shower

Its life-gift

Coursing

her empty branches...

Flowing

down
around
over
through
among

her smooth
round
stones...

Quenching

every thirst-needy

crevice

with the sweet music of
its long-awaited nectar

Filling

her once
barren
bed.

©Linda Giovanna Zambanini
June 2, 1998
for Michelline

Love shook my soul , like on the mountain the wind upon the oaks falls... ~Sappho, 7th c b.c.e. fragment #40

Although they are only breath, words which I command are immortal... ~Sappho, 7th c b.c.e.