In the village guesthouse it fills the room it stands in, a statement of human belief in idyllic desire. Curlicued rills of wrought iron are festooned with lace mosquito net thrown back from its dark, welcoming cave where the conjunction of improbabilities occurs - a boy, knowing cows and goats, is to be patient, tender; a girl, a childbirth witness, is to be responsive, passionate. From this seedbed, despite withered harvests, children dead of malaria, on sheets and pillows strewn with dainty confetti of embroidered flowers, belief would have desire sprout itself out of spit and semen, flourish taller than stunted tapioca and corn from the same soil. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OPPOSITES by KATHERINE MANSFIELD WHAT I'VE BELIEVED IN by JAMES GALVIN THE PRODIGAL SON by DAVID IGNATOW THE DAY OF THE DEAD SOLDIERS; MARY 30, 1869 by EMMA LAZARUS ITALIAN PICTURES: JULY IN VALLOMBROSA by MINA LOY CHILD OF MY HEART by EDWIN MARKHAM |