BABY'S HEART

We made you, a baby

With lotus roots, for the arms

With spring onions, for the fingers

With cherries and raspberries, for the lips

And stars from the heaven for the eyes

Then the gods grew weary of weaving strings of your mind

So we went searching for things to make your heart

We made a canoe and drifted to Gilgamesh

Picked rose pedals from paradeisos for Amyitis

Who wept over Enkidu’s cold body

He gave us a lapis lazuli from the dead brother’s statue

So that we could make your heart

Yet it was so hard and cold and melted in honey in an agate ball

And evaporated in the butter in the sapphire glass

The gods of sun drank it without hesitation

Then we sailed down the Nile on a crocodile’s back

Lifted a granite brick from the pyramid for Sinuhe’s mansion

Who crossed the waterway of the Goddess Maat

Guardian of truth, order and justice

He gave us fruits from the tree of life

So that we could make your heart

Yet the sycamore seeds withered in the soil of Canaan

Tears in Maat’s eyes froze his mercy

Then we crossed the Indian Ocean on lotus to find Rama

Who chased the deer that enticed his beloved Sita

He gave us the horn of the Maricha golden deer

So that we could make your heart

Rama willed himself to the fascination

Alas the mirage of golden deer abducted his Sita

The golden horn in our hands collapsed to golden ashes

The wind from the ocean blew it apart

Then we flew on a goose to find the monkey king in Gobi desert

Who accompanied the monk Xuanzang on a journey to the West

He gave us a peach of immortality stolen from the heavenly banquet

So that we could make your heart

Alas his monk master gifted him with a magical headband

When master recited his spell, the defiant monkey moaned in vain

The peach dissolved in Jade Emperor’s royal wine

Thousands of years shall we wait for the next blossom

How do we make your heart then, my lover on the other side of the Styx?

I mold it, with Prometheus’s broken pieces

I roll it, with the sea pearl on the Nine-Dragon Wall

I fold it, with Titan’s palm and foot

I divide its four rooms with sandalwood

And finally I plant it in the cold, cold earth

Cover with stardust, watered by virgin spring

And I just wait. Wait for love to wake it up.