I get drunk on love, charity, and passion. These are my professions.
*
I walk into the three days we spent together.
On the first day, a nude silence wraps around my lips. Shortly after I can hear the noise of wine poured into glasses.
The hour to get drunk on love has come.
I touch your skin and another you is born.
Birds invade the sky.
A banquet of candles floods the streets.
A white thread ties my blood vessels at the exact moment when a religious procession walks by.
On the second day, drunk on charity, my sights descend upon the earth.
The dirty hands of the woman who owns wells touch my skin.
I hear your voice.
I will not counsel her or belittle her desires.
All she will do is sell her fake dreams in the corner of an empty street for her entire life.
I forbid you.
By punishing her you would have ruined the very thing you set out to safeguard: our love.
On the third day, stars melt in our palms like soft grapes in winepresses.
The intimations of you and I, with their smell and softness of grass and late autumn roses, invade the room.
A convulsive joy impregnates your eyes.
Words have no pigments and no form. Their register sinks in gravity, shiny coil by shiny coil, musical key by musical key, sleepy touch by sleepy touch.
The perfection of the afternoon’s poplars blesses the air.
Possessed by passions, under the wing of a bird, we died three days ago.
About the Poet
Gabriela Marie Milton (pen name) is the author of the poetry collection Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings (Vita Brevis, 2020). Gabriela also authored three novels. Under the name Gabriela M, she was awarded Author of the Year at Spillwords Press (2019) and her poetry was featured by Spillwords Press, Vita Brevis, Indian Periodical, Gioielli Rubati Poetry (translated in Italian by Flavio Almerighi), Tuck Magazine, KashmirPen, “Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen,” LiteraryYard, Proletaria, Free Verse Revolution, and other venues. Gabriela was selected “Author of the Month” at Spillwords (April 2019). Her poem “The Breath of Love and Death” was voted “Publication of the Month” at Spillwords (November, 2019). Gabriela’s work was included in the following anthologies: America’s Emerging Poets Southeast Region (Z Publishing House, 2018); Florida’s Best Emerging Poets (Z Publishing House, 2019); and Pain & Renewal (Vita Brevis Press, 2020). She blogs at shortprose.blog.
“With lush language and lavish imagery, Gabriela M. evokes a fantastic world ripe with emotion.” Christina Schwarz, New York Times Bestselling Author.
Gabriela Marie Milton’s book “transports us on a journey of love as much as it delivers us a thematically diverse set of emotions. This is a superb collection.” Bobbie Peyton, San Francisco Book Review
For the first time in nearly five years, Vita Brevis is closed for submission. Read the full story here.
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