Bowl
Turn it over and look up
into the sphere of heaven.
The tracery is lucent,
light seeping through to write,
white-ink your face, upturned.
Swing it below
and it's a cradle of blue water,
the sea, a womb.
A mixing bowl
for Babylonian gods.
Here, they whirl up the cosmos.
Pick it up and your hands
form a pedastal,
and all who drink
contain the arcs
of body and the universe—
and between them,
no imaginable tear or distance.
(Selected by Aaron Rudolph)
"Bowl" by Valerie Martinez from World to World, published by University of Arizona Press. Copyright 2004 by Valerie Martinez. It also appeared on the Poetry Foundation website.
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