Ketubah

Into this offering cup, I gather myself
To rest in these, your venerated hands.
O my daughter of the barley
Harvest, here, on this threshing
Floor, where these pearls between us
Captured are — even here will I long
For the shadows of your heart
Stretched out between us my love.

O river, O rock! O you
Mysterious face that grazes
Upon the white moon; let me kiss
Your cheek, your own soft eyelids
Deeply veiling silent confidences
— Those which echo tumbling in
The sways of wheat — in the sweet hush
Of these, our playing fields.

Into this cup, myself, I pour
Out for you — your thirsting skin,
Your eyes that kiss at my eyes — grasping.
Where you go, will I go – even here
Before this violet sky you turn
Your face against, O mother of
My people. I consider your wandering,
Delicate feet, your aching back, my
Sister of flowers. Curl up around
My shoulders that I may carry you
To a restful place my love.

O cliff-side, O river bed! O you
Gentle touching hands that rest
Upon my trouble, you who know
Where my burdens gather; can we
Cradle these our whisperings
In gentle palms, protecting? Or
Can we shelter these — our thoughts
And worries yet unformed — in your soft mouth
To keep them for another day until
Our love leaves room enough?

Look, beloved, there above
The harvest fields, where two
Foxes scampering are joyful
In their playing. There the dark
Earth that your enigmatic eyes are,
The sheaf that your shining hair is,
Those slyly leaping in the brilliant sky
That my heart with yours,
Rejoicing is my love.

O strength, O tender courage! O you
Vulnerable arms embracing even those
Stars upon stars upon stars which teach
Us dimly; crush me against
These willowing flowers which
Rain down. May I follow you
Along this path your swaying hips
Within the grass have carved? Or even
Let me clear the way of stones upon
Which your tender feet might bruise.

Where you stay, will I stay – even
Until the sky ends and all which seems
Tiring is tiring. Meet me, there,
Upon that river and I will wash
Your travel wearied face. Here
In this our garden, this sacred river
Where pomegranates down the hillside,
Crimson, tumble, a gift of trees; here
Is where your people will be
My people. I will bathe your garments
In this fertile river — for that love which pours
From my own hands — for the sake of
Bearing your soft name in the hollow
Of my own bared and aching arms; or
In this offering cup — where your God will be
My God; and where every curve
Of every living thing is clothed
In downy shades of us
My love.

© 2008 by Karekin M Yarian

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A Dream of Flying

It’s always the same. I dream I’m trying to fly. All kids dream of flying. Except for me, I can never get fully off the ground. In my case, it was a magic carpet, long before I’d heard of Jinn, magic lamps and Alla’din. And I can’t take flight, here’s the catch. I have to kick my feet to get off the ground. Like some silly fish, trying to swim through the ether. What kind of flying is that? I wanted an invisible plane like Wonder Woman, that was cool. Or even just “Up, Up and Away!” I don’t get that even in my dreams. Erica Jong says that dreams of flying are about sexuality. The implications of that are most extraordinary…

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These Gates

this saffron thread set down within

our undistilled winter – unwound

its color, stretched yawning against us.

will we amble, then,

through these gates into a temporary

place; wash our hands of in-transient

things? a singularity of echo rails

against the groundswell,

the urban emptiness un-

disturbed, as if this garden

of brass remains untroubled with these

gates that pass us silently by.

here is a tender billow. the golden

plumb line carefully stretched

to tame a heaving sun. shall we

poke among these relics for lost

things – while the heart

equivocating, unbinds?

you relentless wind, how errant

the breath that twists the cloth – for

a moment hollow as this thin face.

this is no simple thing that whispers,

clamors, waxes an elegy to our divided

hearts. the sabering death rattle of

the clock hand, the keening of a gilded

river, each footstep a moment diminished,

reduced to its barest essential.

© Karekin M Yarian

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Madhur Meets Her Husband

A Pantoum (in trochaic pentameter)

Rooftops slid off into darkness, brooding.

Madhur let her hair down, softly weeping.

“Is there more than this?” the rains alluding,

Honey on her lips a secret keeping.

Madhur let her hair down, softly weeping.

Slipped into the arms of love so tender,

Honey on her lips a secret keeping,

Opened up her breath to then surrender.

Slipped into the arms of love so tender.

“Why does heaven suffer so for beauty?”

Opened up her breath to then surrender.

Offering her body to her duty.

“Why does heaven suffer so for beauty?”

“Is there more than this?” the rains alluding.

Offering her body to her duty,

Rooftops slid off into darkness, brooding.

© Karekin M Yarian

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A Lamentation and A Prayer

O Father God, the world thinks it has no need of you. I think they are wrong. For it is not really you that they reject, but the caricatures of you that are painted in black and white by some who claim to know you. I think that I know you, but only in glimpses of that inspired love I feel at times that comes upon me for no apparent reason. You know, that love that takes me out of my own selfish attitudes and desires and points me firmly toward the needs of others who suffer through this world and feel alone. I have no reason to care that can be explained by anything else but you, O God. For deep down inside, I am a selfish man. And the love that comes from you transforms me.

But O, my Father, the times call for radical changes. The biggest of which is our re-imagining of you and of your place in the world. Too often, our pictures of you become the very things which divide us rather than bind us together. Because we remember only what we were taught as little children and have forgotten to pay attention to the way you have revealed yourself to us as adults. We have not listened deeply to your call throughout our lives, but only remember the way you made us feel safe and protected when we said our prayers at night just before turning out the lights. In our homes, in our little rooms, where strangers were not welcome.

But I remember, Father, that you are not the source of our problems, but the solution to them. And that the source of the problem is not who you are, but only in the limits of our imagination to understand how you are and the ways in which you are present to us in this world which we have taken from your care. Forgive our short-sightedness and our arrogance and, please, relieve us of our blindness.

O Mother Earth, my heart is broken for you. We have forgotten you because we have disembodied you. We have dishonored you and the blessing that you provide for us. Like selfish children raiding Mother’s pocketbook, we have treated you like self-indulgent teenagers. We are made of the very stuff of you, from your very substance. And we have failed you. I wish your children would stop for a moment and remember – remember that for thousand of years of our human history we named you and recalled your blessing. And we remembered to give back to you what was yours and to take only what we needed and we always asked first.

Today, I thank you for our nourishment and your unfailing presence. And I ask for your forgiveness. We are surely remembering our dependence upon you, slow as we are and dull witted. We are on the cusp of leaving our teenage selfishness behind, but not without our moments of deep rebellion. And so, I ask your patience. I ask you to remember a Mother’s love even in the midst of your weariness.

O Sister Church, the world has grown weary of you. Not for the things you have done, but for those things that you have not done. You have not given voice to the oppressed and the outcast. You have not served, but have sought to rule. And you have sometimes taught the world that God hates on their behalf so that they might be relived of responsibility for their hating. You have raised up leaders who do not know what it means to be the least among you. And in their leading, they do not understand power and authority or how to use them rightly. And while you are finally learning, you have not understood that your people are the true ministers of the church, and that the church is not a building, but the building up of a vision for the world that could be here and now if only you could perceive it. You are meant to be the antidote for the world, not complicit in that which poisons us. And while that may sound harsh, I ask you only to take a look every time you find yourself in agreement with Caesar. Chances are, you are missing something truly important.

O my Sister, I love you even as I weep for you. I weep because you are worthy of love, and yet you do not know it. You spend more time apologizing for your Spouse than for your own behavior. But your spouse is not the problem. Jesus has never been the problem. Christ needs no apology for the fact that you have not found yourself on the same page when raising your children together.

But still I love you, for you have helped form me. You have sent me into the world as a brother, to love and to serve – even when you have not always done the same. You have given me a language and a space to search for and love my Creator. For you still have not forgotten God, nor failed to remember his Son, and for this you are blessed and still given a chance to find your voice. I bid you to remember that the Kingdom is here, within and among you, not far off in some place and time yet to come. So live as if you remember that. Remember it each time you name someone who is not worthy of your companionship – for they are the first you should serve. Feed them, wash their feet, let them heal you. Let each outcast find a place among you so that the world may be whole. For nothing is whole as long as one remains apart.

Remember your mother, the earth, for as surely as you were built up from her very substance, your duty – as any child – is to protect her. Remember your brother, Christ, as you have always done. But let him grow up. Let him become what he was meant to be, not only as you remember him from your youth, but in his glory and his power. In his wisdom and his capacity to love which is so deep that it is meant for more than you alone. Don’t be selfish with him, for if death itself could not contain his love, neither can you.

O Brother Christ, my dearest friend, companion, soul-lover; please be with us. I carry you in my heart, too often like a private treasure. But you, my Brother, in life and in death call us to our better selves. Your words, spoken so long ago, are – as God promised – etched upon our hearts. “Love one another as I have loved you.” There are, too often, not enough words in our limited vocabulary to describe that love. And so we remain silent. Forgive us. But, of course, you will for that is in your very nature. And for that I give you unending thanks.

My Brother, call us to remembrance of a love that knows no boundaries. Inspire us to acts of kindness and justice. Above all, remind us of the dignity of every human person – made as they are in the Divine image – so that none of your beloved brothers or sisters may be left without hope. For the Reign that you call us to embody is not far off, but here and now surrounds us. And if we are not mindful of your words, then all is lost. Open our mouths to speak, and unbind our hands and feet to do the work you have called us to do. Remember your Church, which sometimes struggles still to remember who you really are. Pray for us to the God who makes all things, to our “Abba” who loves all things and who holds the Universe together, to the Creator who sings the Universe into being and whose song vibrates through every string. Pray that we may stop placing ourselves at the very center that is God’s alone, but that we may enter into that center and be whole and at peace with God who is the origin of all things.

O Christ, I love you. The remembrance of you suffuses my whole being with a longing that I cannot explain. And your gentle presence fills me with joy, and hope, and a desire to help repair the brokenness of the world. Be my companion and the light that shows me where to start. Remind me when I falter in that gentle way that you have. When I am weary, hold me up with that strength that I know is yours. And when I need rest, wrap me in the mantle of that peace which is yours alone. You are my beloved, and I am yours.

And filled with the joy of that love, my heart overflows and my spirit remembers that all will one day be well. In this place, where all hope abounds. And God is present.

Amen.

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The Baptismal Covenant and our Rule of Life

Our life in apostolic witness is a full affirmation of our commitment to Baptism. In the community of the baptized that is the church, we are called not to better or more profound commitment to what is asked of us in Baptism, but instead to a visible and more deliberate witness to what the Baptismal Covenant requires of us.

Let us start with Baptism and what that means. In spite of the best of intentions to be inclusive in the church, we must understand that there is no such thing as an unbaptized Christian. To be a Christian is, by virtue of Baptism, to be admitted as a full member of the Body of Christ, being washed with water and anointed with oil in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The understanding of the sacraments as professed by the church is that the sacrament is not only a sign of, but effects the grace that it represents. Baptism is the very means by which, in the Christian understanding and in accordance with Scripture, we are cleansed from sin and given the Holy Spirit of God to dwell within us.

Without the essential element of Baptism one is not fully a member of the Body of Christ that is the church. Baptism is the means by which our membership is effected and sealed. To give the impression that this is not the case is dangerous to the individual as well as to the church itself.

In Baptism we have become the children of God through adoption. Ours is not to join the intellectual debate regarding what it means to be a child by adoption. It is for us a statement that, although all of us are God’s children, there is a special intimacy between God and those God has called into relationship with him through Baptism. Each Christian is, therefore related to all other Christians in the way sibling is to sibling, all of us living in that unique relationship to our Creator that is characterized by Jesus in calling God “Abba” or Father. God has chosen to relate to us as a parent, and we are uniquely God’s children. This is what it means to be a Christian.

It is important to note that it is not merely our particular set of rules, values, dogmatic assumptions or activities that define us as Christians, hence setting us apart from members of other faiths. It is Baptism alone which sets us apart. All of the rest of the formulae that dictate Christian life and worship are means by which we seek to discover what the implications of that Baptism are for us. They are the means by which we appropriate and live out the unique relationship to God which we have been offered in Christ Jesus.

As such, our Rule of Life is the instrument by which we, individually and in community, seek to live out what it means to be Christian. It is the means by which we, as individuals, seek to discover the implications of our unique relationship with God as defined by our Baptism; and it is the community’s formula, by which it seeks to express the significance of that relationship with God in our lives together as Christian family.

Throughout our Rule of Life in the Brotherhood, there is an emphasis on sacrifice that is characteristic of the Christian faith. When we are called fully into lives as Christian people, we are asked to make room for the bounty of God bestowed upon us, the most primary of which is the presence of the Holy Spirit. There begins an interior process of the emptying of self, a making room for that presence. As God emptied himself for us, taking on our human nature in the form of a slave “he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” we are asked to empty ourselves for God that God might dwell fully in us and we in God. We are asked, in some sense, to make sacrifices of those things that may seem important to us. Proper stewardship of time, talent and treasure is the very means by which we make these sacrifices.

The whole of our Rule is dedicated to naming those ways in which we sacrifice our self-centered needs, our clinging to possessions, our desire for esteem and high regard. More than just a litany of obligations and requirements, it is a reflection of those ideals which we are called to embody as children of God and ambassadors of Christ. “A brother must endeavor to witness to our Redeemer’s love with quietness, patience, humility, charity, courage and prayer.” and further along, “…….service to our fellow man.” There are many things in the Rule which point to our development of values consistent with the Gospel message of love, unity, service and reconciliation.

We must take care not to fossilize the Rule by interpreting every passage to represent specific or concrete ways of living our lives in apostolic witness. The Rule is not about praxis as much as it is about perceptions. Our Rule calls us to seek understanding, it does not provide us with it. It does not give us the answers on how to serve, or ways in which to witness. Nor does it detail how our vows are to be reflected in our individual lives. We are called to make those choices within the framework established by the Rule. Therefore, our ways of life may be many and varied.

Yet, we are called to live our lives in the world — and as such, praxis must not be overlooked. The gifts bestowed upon us by God are meant to be shown forth in concrete ministries to our communities, our families and our neighborhoods. Our understanding of Christian witness is that we live in relationship with God only as well as we manifest his love in our relationships with others. We show forth this life in service to all, taking every opportunity to demonstrate the love of God, even in our limited capacity to do so. Our Founder writes: “We will only be great if we continue to grow and to be true to the ideals of our foundation. All of us as Christians will only be great if we continue to serve and love God.”

Let us look at the promises we are asked to make in Baptism and how that covenant is reflected in our community documents. We are asked to “renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness… renounce the evil powers of this world….. renounce all sinful desires that draw us from the love of God.” We are asked these questions: “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior, do you put your whole trust in his grace and love, do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord? Do you believe in God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit?” The Rule itself asks us to make the vow of Obedience to Jesus Christ as our only Lord and Savior. Implicit in this vow is the trust that the statements made in the Baptismal examination are true. We cannot profess Obedience to Jesus as Lord if we do not acknowledge him as Lord and Savior of all, nor can we place our trust in him if we do not understand him as our gentle master, believing in his grace to aid us in our journey. We profess the Christian faith in baptism and we reaffirm it in our Rule of Life.

“The Brotherhood shall, through the consecration of life offered through its Rule, aid in the development of the spiritual life of each of its members.” We have essentially accepted the responsibility of allowing the Baptismal Covenant to become fully integrated into our lives and our understanding of ministry and community. “Will you continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”

These are neither ideological statements, nor abstract ideals. The Baptismal Covenant is a plan of action, a way of living. They are concrete realities. Our community documents are centered in these realities. We continue: “Members of the brotherhood shall express and exercise in the world their particular consecration in their apostolic activity, witnessing through daily life to the love of God in Christ Jesus. The Brotherhood, through its common bond, shall encourage the growth and unity of all its members, as an example to all with whom they come in contact. Following the direction of the Holy Spirit, the brotherhood shall serve God in the work and worship of the church.” The Rule requires weekly, if not daily, participation in the Eucharist; daily prayer; examination of conscience and witness to the love of God. Even Chastity, as defined by the Rule, is the equivalent of “respect[ing] the dignity of every human being” spoken of in the Baptismal Covenant.

In our ministry and witness to the church and to the world, we are asked to show forth the calling of Baptism and to raise up the unique vocation of apostolic religious life. There are essential similarities in each and there are fundamental differences. Baptism is the beginning of the journey; profession of vows is a commitment to a specific route to that journey’s end.

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A Community Gathered

Oh… how I love my brothers !



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Portraits of the Northern California Coast

I. Stonehouse

These hills so burnished by the piercing gold

Rays that thread and sew the fog in patches,

Are such that I’ve already reminisced

And long for, tho’ I’ve never really known them;

Barren granite, honey-combed and angry,

Salt-shorn rocky faces cleft by breezes,

Quilted ice-plant bedding, swollen tongues

Lapping at the surface of the sea foam,

Raging at the sunlight on the highlands. At

This place where sea and shore together weep

I am inclined to pray, to search for respite

Where all are battered by the moon together,

And nothing but the stones pretend to sleep.

Bless the sea-foam churning. Bless the stones that take

The lashing of the stinging waves, atoning

For the hubris of the moon – in secret.

While seals play and the hills glow golden,

I will lament this place of fire, burning,

Of salt that stings the skin and nostrils,

Of surf that cleaves the heart and hillsides.

Bless the windshorn wild, the foggy chill, the sands.

Bless the weeping of the sun that warms my hands,

The rays that thread and sew the fog in patches,

The clutch of straw that feeds the flame, the bellows,

And turns my heart to ashes at the strand.

A flock of pelicans, through fog ascended,

Like a whisper overheard conspiring,

Punctuates the silence of the daybreak.

Our secrets spill upon an empty table

In hushed and muted solitude. We bare them

To an empty bottle, to a barren hearth,

To each other in a silent house.

The pains, unsilenced then, by word and timbre,

Will merge into these hills, this howling landscape…

Will echo, fade away, leave us afraid,

And in this house of stone, our selves unburdened,

Inured, and captive to this loneliness –

Will consume the very dust of which we’re made.

Bless the wind’s lamenting. Bless the waves that break

And shape us into sorrow’s suffering children.

I watched the moon gaze at her face this morning

In a tide-pool on the beach at 5 a.m. –

Such vanity from nothing but a spirit,

A hungry ghost who lives upon our sighing

And swallows up the echo of our wailing days.

Bless our pain, our secret faults, the smothering dark.

Bless the arrows of the moon that pierce their mark.

Like a whisper overheard conspiring,

These withering hearts, like this great wilderness,

Themselves have grown now plaintive, chill and stark.

©Karekin M Yarian


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A Eucharistic Prayer for Justice (long version)

Written in 2005 for use at my parish. Please feel free to use as you wish and as your Bishop has permitted. But let me know!


The people remain standing. The Presider faces them and sings or says

   May God be with you.

People And also with you.

Presider    Lift up your hearts.

People We lift them to our God.

Presider    Let us give thanks to the Holy One.

People It is right to give God thanks and praise.

Then, facing the Holy Table, the Presider proceeds

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and every-

where to give thanks to you, Almighty God, fountain and

Foundation of all Creation.

Here a Proper Preface is sung or said on all Sundays, and on other

occasions as appointed.

Preface: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Holy Wisdom, who was humbled in every way as we are, yet did not succumb to temptation. By his grace we are able to gather the noble and the outcast together into one body, and to live no longer for ourselves alone, but for him who brought us to triumph over the powers of death and darkness.

Therefore we join our voices to offer you glory, singing with Angels and Archangels, with all the just and noble company of the heavens, who for ever raise this hymn to proclaim your glorious Name:

Presider and People

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

The people stand or kneel.

Then the Presider continues

Holy God: We give you thanks for the tender balance and just order which you have revealed to us in your creation. You established in the midst of this great company of stars a paradise; where all things given shelter there might live in harmony and peace. You filled it with myriad wondrous things and commanded each to their own purpose, great and small, mighty and humble – every creature given voice to sing in concert with the whole Creation.

As a final crowning glory, you fashioned from the clay our human kind, to be vessels for your creative and life-giving Spirit. You breathed your Word into them and set them in the midst of paradise, that they might find their home there and live in perfect peace. Gathering all things to themselves, you asked only that they should celebrate and nurture all that you had made. Yet, even when we dishonored your purpose, you did not fail us.

Through Truth Seekers and Wise Ones you called us to remember our place. Through Abraham and Sarah, you called us to set out on the journey to follow you. With Moses, Aaron, and Miriam you dedicated a people to yourself; and brought us to a fresh land that might shine with witness to your love for all people. Over and again, through your word and law, you called us to re-establish the order and balance that we had lost.

When, at last, the time had come, having been long heralded by Angels, you sent your Christ, the Righteous One. Incarnate of the Holy Spirit, given flesh and form by your Most Favored One, he entered the world to reveal your kingdom among us, so that finally your harmony might be restored as was intended. Through noble teachings and deeds of wonder, he taught us about justice and mercy. He called to himself outcasts and children, the sick, the humble and the maimed, and proclaimed their righteousness. He restored the lowly and the needy to a place of honor and called us to do the same for all people.

It was a difficult word for us to bear, and in time, we heaped upon him the sum of our indignations. Yet, determined to show that nothing would cause you to repent of your great love for us, he willingly bore the burdens and humiliations of our human kind even unto death among thieves and sinners. Offering himself into your hand, trusting in your justice alone, he was delivered from the grave in triumph, making the whole creation new again.

At the following words concerning the bread, the Presider is to hold it

or lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to hold or

place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be

consecrated.

On the night we handed him over to death upon the cross, our Lord Jesus took bread as a symbol of our hunger; and when he had given praise and thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his companions, and said, “Take, eat: This is my Body, which I give willingly for you. When you hunger for righteousness, remember me and what I did for you.”

After supper he took the wine as a symbol of our need; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Promise, which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you thirst for justice, remember me and what I did among you.”

Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Presider and People

Christ, our mercy, has suffered death.

Christ, our mercy, is risen from the grave.

Christ, our noble Christ, will come again.

The Presider continues

We celebrate the salvation of our loving God, by offering you our praise and humble thanks. Recalling Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension to your right hand, we offer you these gifts from this magnificent Creation within which you have established us.

Make them life-giving by your Holy Spirit; to be for your people the

Body and Blood of Christ, the holy food and drink of renewed invitation to unending life in him. Unite us to your Christ in this most holy blessing, that we may faithfully receive him at this sacred Banquet. Bind us to mercy and peace, that we may serve you as a people dedicated to your inclusive reign; that we, like this bread, may be given to restore the world the the harmony which you intended. And that none who come to you may feel excluded from your justice and love, give us strength to proclaim your Good News to all people, leaving no one behind, so at the last day every man, woman and child may rejoice with saints and angels in your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ, your Incarnate Word. By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all praise and honor is yours, Almighty God, until the end of time. To you alone be glory. AMEN.


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A Dream of Hanuman

Om Sri Hanumate Namah

Karekin M Yarian, August 2006

Drowned within the monsoon air-blush,

Symphonic crush of petals, swirling

Above the tongue-chant, rushing, I

Flush delirious at the scent of you, winged

Monkey-warrior-boy, languid against me

Resting. Your wind-breath gnarls this

Smear-garden of color, your eternal tail restraining,

In a tender bondage, coiled. I, time and in between

Again, awake — dream-met, my face reddened.

Such consonant bliss grazed by your language

Always at the tips of these fingers, burning.

Those essential parts of you, worshipful and —

Maddeningly that whisper — simian and primal,

Sex and sadness, honeyed in day-sleep, coerce

My fingers to stroke your venerated face.

The gentle ache, foolish, as bestial within me

As these hands which clutch, these lips that furrow

The pools on your downy chest, re-tracing.

The iron grasp of you is — against this hurricane

Of flowers — the rose, the rock, the pinkened

Granite of the ground rising beneath us;

Is that which sets ablaze these chants

And verses that you feed my mouth. These words

That from me bleed and drain, that storm

In drops upon the stones, may not elaborate;

Nor should I trust but that the seed

Of our first meeting in the forest-dream

Flows within me still, attending. Bitter and delightful is

The urge to clothe myself a figure in your celibate skin

Or that my tongue-piece should then wish

To willow in the unceasing curves of you — to feast upon

The sun in your mouth, the glow of your wind-battered

Omens brought from heaven — for that libation poured

Out in shadows beneath this marriage bed

In the swaying branches of our sacred banyan tree.

© 2006, Karekin M Yarian


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