XVII

I have seen God, she passed and rested her eye

on my heart and I don't know what she thought.

Nor did she speak. Confronting that pregnant silence I asked

nothing lest my words smudge her transparent body of grammar.

In her belly, white, I read my fragile eternal gospel

saw the letters of my name depurated of vanity, wept.

I found God at sea away from those grey streets

hanging to her black ankles I was led to you.