On Her Birthday He Wrote... Poem by Philani Amadeus Nyoni

I should come bearing gifts

But silver and gold I have none,

No time nor flight to reach your side,

Touch you and pour my heart in song.

I am humbler than the Palestinian carpenter,

So I send the wind to caress your shoulder:

In his gentle touch may you find my hand.

I send the moon to bathe you in his light,

Rest well, the unblinking eye of heaven

Rests upon you by my command.

I send the stars to claim my desires,

If I had a million eyes I'd lay all on you!

Silence I bid to imitate my lonely heart,

To what shall it beat apart from your speech?

And Time, what shall I make of him?

A friend, my hand in his and yours in mine,

Though he cannot carry us to his own end

May he hold dear this paper and these words

Penned for you. My dear, I give you life eternal!

But most of all, I cast these words to the wind,

Hoping they kiss your lips and stain your tongue;

That when you speak of love, you speak only of me,

Though bound by space and heaven's forbidding will

We will be one, like spirits raised by the same gourd.