Mimicking the Love Scenes in Juliet and Romeo

the play starts/ with two bodies lying
in a new garden of eden/ bare
like the way a mother brings forth her child/
into the world.

she/ a chalice & me/
a snake curled all over her body

light fades from the first scene.

& we became a bowl of hygeia/
throughout
the entire play.

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Another Barren Poem

the news came/ he’d packed his belongings
& smuggled his way into a country not on
world map; my body became a cloudless sky/
housing thunder & lightning. but i didn’t dare sob.

before becoming a wind; the rain,
in a loud voice like a town crier— called
to attention/ the perpetual fading away of a dust
climbing heaven’s ladder/ but nature speaks
in a language we just won’t comprehend, you know.

under moonlight, my cousin made a vow:
to someday set his sole on the other side of
the ocean/ & sweep all the good fortunes
on the sidewalks of earth into his mother’s purse

we never had the time to ask— when?
& to where? & how exactly? & what
the fuck he meant, when he said what he said?
instead/
we punctuated his beautifully dressed wish[es]
with unholy insha allah

so every time his mother tries unbuckling
her purse/ a whole new collection of distress
falls/ to the sands her son’s now a parcel of

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Poems © Abuoya Eruot
Image by Comfreak from Pixabay (modified)