On your eyes the world sets its clocks1

On your eyes the world sets its clocks1
On your eyes the world sets its clocks
1
Before you became my beloved
there were many calendars to measure time.
The Indians had their calendar,
the Chinese had their calendar,
the Persians had their calendar,
the Egyptians had their calendar.
After you became my beloved
people began to say:
the thousandth year before her eyes
the tenth century after her eyes.
I reached in your love the degree of evaporation
and the sea’s water became larger than the sea
and the eye’s tears larger than the eye
and the wound’s space..
larger than the space of flesh.

3
And I unite with you more
my lips are no longer enough to cover your lips
my arms no longer enough to encircle your waist
and the words I know
are far fewer
than the number of moles that embroider your body.

4
I can no longer
for years now
they have been announcing in the newspapers that I am missing
and I am still missing..
until further notice..

5
Language can no longer say you..
words became like wooden horses
and they cannot reach you..
Whenever they accuse me of loving you..
I feel superior.
And I hold a press conference
distribute your photos to the journalists
and appear on television
while placing in the lapel of my coat
the rose of scandal..

7
I used to hear lovers
speaking of their longing
and I laughed..
I drank my coffee alone..
I learned how the dagger of longing enters the side
and never leaves..

8
My problem with criticism
is that whenever I write a poem in black ink
they say I copied it from your eyes..

9
That whenever I deny my relation to you
they hear the jingling of your bracelets
in the vibrations of my voice
and they see your nightgown

10
Do not accustom me to you..
for the doctor advised me
not to leave my lips on your lips
for more than five minutes
and not to sit under the sun of your breasts
for more than one minute

11
If you know a man
who loves you more than I do
then guide me to him
so I may congratulate him..
and kill him afterwards..