Ritual
- Ritual
Some mornings I pretendto sleep, our room cool as
a tomb, before the radiatorhas jeweled the air to weigh
us further into the next life,& that is usually when
she arrives, stuffed animalsshe places on either side of us,
a dog named Tickle & a catwhose name I have forgotten.
In your slumbering you arealmost a sarcophagus while
she is already whisperingthe ritual, the play by play
of her prayer, what is what,& what goes where. Content,
she then climbs between us,rests her hands on our faces
until the moment is littlemore than what it is, returning
those awake in the temporarytemple of Love's making. [End Page 53]
Jon Pineda is the author of the memoir Sleep in Me, a Barnes and Noble "Discover" Selection. His books of poetry are The Translator's Diary, winner of the Green Rose Prize, and Birthmark, winner of the Crab Orchard Award Series Open Competition. His new poetry manuscript was a finalist for the 2011 National Poetry Series, and his novel is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions.
