Midwife of a Dancing Star
Let's workshop this poem about the narrator's muse who, remaining distant and speaking love only in whispers, leaves him consumed with a sense of longing he expresses in furies of words.
Midwife of a Dancing Star
My muse—Athena?—sings her love
to me each day, but in whispers only
into my third ear. Aside from hints
that my writings feed and grow her,
give words to what she holds dear
(even if she never knew she did);
that they inspire her to redouble
her commitment to join me in life-
celebration and truth painting
(no, not as my follower but rather
as my co-leader: the Ti to my Do)—
aside from such hints (hints whose
gathering feels too embarrassing
to recount), from what my senses see
(those of nontelepathic flesh at least)
I walk about less than a ghost to her.
She speaks no more words to me
than perhaps the fifty she ever did.
From the inner certainty of her love
(daily renewed I feel, like a dawn
commuter’s salutation of the sun)
plus the empirical (near) certainty
that I do not even cross her mind,
a fury to write—like the sun’s fury
to shine—consumes me. She might
ruin my life, but only for a time,
if she ever were to confess her love.This poem is unpublished
Photo: popsugar.com/entertainment/Heaven-Gate-Marshall-Applewhite-True-Story-44201709
Here is a better version. It not only is in rhyme (which all poetry must have), but it makes clear that the love is diverse.
Third Ear
My muse whispers gay love each day
through my third ear's Heaven’s Gate
in tones only I—nonwhite—can play
and words that leave me to my fate.//
Trans nonwhite, she stokes my fire bright,
her heart's desire HR-approved in flame.
Ti to my Do, we dance (consensually) in light,
co-leaders in life's intersectionality game.//
But as I roll in wheelchair-accessible vibes,
I'm but a shadow, an antiracist thought.
My muse's inclusive words nowhere to abide,
our nonableist love a silent secret wrought.//
Still I write, with fevered but triggerless ink,
my heart ablaze with her sweet voice.
My words honor her safe-space think,
a DEI love that makes my soul rejoice.