by Josefine Cole

where is the soul of you, world?

for, bittersweetly pining, I would

press my palms into the sheath

of flesh that wreaths you,

and like so many other lovers

find some succor in that bending

breeze of compliant skin and sallow

entrancements of your lesser suitors-

to witness so much misled fallout,

the broken bottles and couples’ quarrels

cascading through your rigid veins,

the streets howling of misspent longing!

when will i breathe the soul of you,

savor the sour and salty opening

of you, press my tongue to you,

invite the shock of unfiltered munificence

sweating and streaming from the core of you,

near-bursting, ripe, relentless truth,

to soothe the facade-weary and scare away youth,

to reanimate passions long displaced from misuse?

when will i love, world-

would your consent then extend to me

to touch the elusive heart of you-

could i find a home in you

and could you find the soul in me?

Josefine Cole is a recent graduate of Naropa’s BA Religious Studies program and a practitioner of Tibetan/Shambhala Buddhism.