YOU

“I awaken by the heat
emanating from your body.
I wash the grapes
and eat the bad ones
so you don’t taste
their bitterness.
You place the bowl
on your stomach
and the cold
makes you squeal.
I smile.
You simper.
That is enough for me.

I come home
and eat my meal
in silence.
I avoid you.
Your hand takes the dish
I just placed in the sink
and washes it.
I rest my head
on the wooden table.
The dish is placed to dry.
There are no footsteps.
Then
a mouth kisses the nape
of my neck.
My head sinks deep into the wood
and my obstinacy drowns.
That is enough for me.

I write because
of you,
about you and
for you.
I will not perish
when you leave
for your existence
is enough for me.”

Kamand Kojouri

YOUR SKIN IS A THOUSAND STARS

“Your skin is a thousand stars
being born at once.
I want to drown in your light.

Pour.
Pour the light of your body on me.

Your hair is the night’s skirt
whose folds hide a thousand moons.
I want to drown in your night.

Pour.
Pour the night of your body on me.

Your eyes have orphaned me from certainty:
Oh, the freedom of knowing nothing!
I only understand this moment
that contains all of eternity.

This moment
that you are here
and I am here
and we make a world.
This moment
is all we need to know.
You and I
were always made
for this moment.

Let life have us.
And pour.
Pour the life of your body on me.”

Kamand Kojouri

WE WERE ONCE ANGELS

“I have given it much thought.
There seems to be
only one explanation
for why we are here.
Why our souls choose
to incarnate as mortals
only to suffer for a hundred years
over and over again.
I now understand
we were once angels
who chose to manifest as humans
in order to experience the imperfect
and tempestuous human love.
So you see, if angels couldn’t refuse love
then who am I to refuse you?
And so I yield.
I surrender to this.
Our eternal dance.”

Kamand Kojouri

 

AN ARTIST

“I should’ve probably warned you:
once you end a relationship with an artist,
you are perpetually reminded of them.
They have now ruined classical music and jazz for you.
They have ruined books and poetry.
You should just forget about galleries and museums.
But you know what the worst part is?
It’s how they witnessed and observed you,
making you feel like the only person in the room.
And you secretly loved being looked at,
being worshipped.
So now you avoid mirrors.
Because when you look at yourself,
you remember me.”

Kamand Kojouri

“Be still, and know that I will always love you.”

Kamand Kojouri

DRINK

“You keep thinking you’re too much for me
that I will say I’ve had enough.
But I drank all you poured for me
and I’m thirsting to drink some more.”

Kamand Kojouri

YOUR THISNESS

“Your whatness
is what we share with you,
our togetherness.
Your thisness
is your separate essence,
your distinctness.
I love you for your whatness,
for the me in you, and the you in us.
I love you for your thisness,
your eternal soul,
deathless and endless.”

Kamand Kojouri

“What is the point of all these books
when I learn best by reading your body?”

Kamand Kojouri

YOU DO NOT INSIST THAT I LOVE YOU

“You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when I hear your unbridled laughter?
How can I deny it
when I see your constellating freckles?
You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when your scent shadows me at night?
How can I deny it
when your beauty attacks me in the light?
You do not insist that I love you,
but I insist that I do.”

Kamand Kojouri

“When you left,
poetry visited me.”

Kamand Kojouri