Soul
by Mindie Kniss
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.
