glancing down protectively
from standing tall on stilted legs

they monitored the arch of cupid’s arrow
followed its trajectory amused in their knowing

love does not live in the pleats of a dress
or in the pocket of a tailored pants

they who have crossed over and now carry
the dreams that the foolish dream when

life overwhelms watched and waited
strutted through the fields watered

with kindness and tiled with expectation
here was a bed ready for love’s fruit

here was a moment immortalized by
history here was to be found the beginning

and all that was yet possible by a people
for whom love was every breath they breathed

every whip they endured every child they seeded
and brought to life in a time when meaning was

inverted and they had to go back to remember
oshun’s sweet whooshing river voice that rippled

you are the constant love floating with the clouds
you are the perennial love rising with the sun

you are the brilliant orange-colored love blossoming
in the flamboyant you are each and every new day

the jumbies know that love is memory and it’s
our memory that keeps them alive living among

our midst out of reach but not unmindful of our needs
they are the archers of cupid’s arrows they are the wind

that guides their velocity straight penetrating our hearts
so we can look and recognize the love in each other’s eyes

you looking and see what’s good and wholesome in me
me looking and appreciating what’s divine and pure in you

just love love as raw and bewitching
as the ocean after a storm

just as new and clean as any dawn
love you glancing at me and me seeing myself in you

love
a simple indefinable truth