Love Life

LOVE By Pablo Neruda

Because of you, in gardens of blossoming flowers

I ache from the perfumes of spring.

I have forgotten your face, I no longer remember your hands;

how did your lips feel on mine?

Because of you, I love the white statues drowsing in the parks,

the white statues that have neither voice nor sight.

I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice;

I have forgotten your eyes.

Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to my vague memory of you.

I live with pain that is like a wound; if you touch me, you will do me irreparable harm.

Your caresses enfold me, like climbing vines on melancholy walls.

I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to glimpse you in every window.

Because of you, the heady perfumes of summer pain me; because

of you, I again seek out the signs that precipitate desires:

Picture taken by samii149st

The Long Deployment

By: Jehanne Dubrow

For weeks, I breathe his body in the sheet

and pillow. I lift a blanket to my face.

There’s bitter incense paired with something sweet,

like sandalwood left sitting in the heat

or cardamom rubbed on a piece of lace.

For weeks, I breathe his body. In the sheet

I smell anise, the musk that we secrete

with longing, leather and moss. I find a trace

of bitter incense paired with something sweet.

Am I imagining the wet scent of peat

and cedar, oud, impossible to erase?

For weeks, I breathe his body in the sheet—

crushed pepper—although perhaps discreet,

difficult for someone else to place.

There’s bitter incense paired with something sweet.

With each deployment I become an aesthete

of smoke and oak. Patchouli fills the space

for weeks. I breathe his body in the sheet

until he starts to fade, made incomplete,

a bottle almost empty in its case.

There’s bitter incense paired with something sweet.

And then he’s gone. Not even the conceit

of him remains, not the resinous base.

For weeks, I breathed his body in the sheet.

Every year that I'm with you

Has been better than before;

It's hard for me to even think

How I could love you more.

Every year you've graced my life

Has been full of happiness;

I love your caring face, your voice,

Your tender, sweet caress.

Every year when this day comes,

I'm filled with love and pleasure;

Happy Anniversary, Love,

My joy, my delight, my treasure.