Leila Ired Poems

You sank me down
in muds of treachery
like quicksand
clawing at my soul.
...

I am beige
but I would have you paint me colored.
Like the sun, brown my hot skin
mahogany; like the wind, wind red-gold twists
...

I used to wring out sheets with
you
grasping one end tightly and
I the other, and I
...

Hero!
I see you start
to be addressed so boldly.
...

I am
at heart
a saltwater creature
No crystal brooks or placid streams
...

I went to the bird market
And I bought some birds
...

if you have
never
spoken a single word to me
...

I have known
vengefulness
and that sweetness of
words withheld.
...

Like daylight
I fall straight and true
but like twilight I
am caught between evening
...

If I had
but one gospel to leave you,
my dear ones, my daughters, o my beautiful ones,
it would not be the morals of shame sin or religion
...