tunneling memories

Tunneling Memories
By Rita Sabanal Laurencio
when you lie, i like you more,
you look cute, like a wounded leopard.
nature wasn't cruel, only the heart.

don't try to hold crooked branches,
a rose fire, yellow sky:
each of us has her own personal heaven
her own darknesses, wet tunnel of terrors
and factories of happiness

i like you, too, when you pay attention to your blessings,
when you kneel down to your fall-down,
when you stand and curl and cry...

silently in the dark
with your adventurous murky splash--arms open
dappled with amorous wildness.

oh, how i like you most
when you anchor your body in the light,
moving your eyelid back-and-forth,
tongue gulping limply with your own tenderness
akin to a leopard of my self-made god
perfectly glowing at the back of my corrupted flesh.