Villanelle

Every day our bodies separate,

explode torn and dazed.

Not understanding what we celebrate

we grope through languages and hesitate

and touch each other, speechless and amazed;

and every day our bodies separate

us further from our planned, deliberate

ironic lives. I am afraid, disphased,
not understanding what we celebrate




when our fused limbs and lips communicate

the unlettered power we have raised.

Every day our bodies' separate

routines are harder to perpetuate.

In wordless darkness we learn wordless praise,

not understanding what we celebrate;

wake to ourselves, exhausted, in the late


morning as the wind tears off the haze,

not understanding how we celebrate
our bodies. Every day we separate.