YOU'LL PERCEIVE NOTHING Poem by Kiki Dimoula

You'll perceive nothing

you'll just read in the morning

some coded lips scrawled

on your bedside glass

with all-night water.



I'm thinking of sending my melancholy

to sleep with you tonight

so I can be alone a little.



In her bag

under her evening meds I'll pack

as if by accident one of her childhood photos

in case you sing her a lullaby

and under the lullaby I'll hide

a second set of clothes

in case things change and you

keep her tomorrow also.



Of course, how do you love by night

another without asking? Listen:

eros was an imperative

before it was entreaty.



Besides, you'll feel nothing.

She'll not lie beside you exactly

the exact is inhospitable.



In an ample adjacent willingness she'll sleep

glued leaning sideways to

the imperceptible — sublime creation:



Love me you tell it and it loves.