Ideology

three girls ago

bloodroot: it was Eid

Al-Adha: a man

I loved shoved

my face into

German reeds

I can still feel his sweat

when I unsleep: the cleave

of his breath-lice

warming chains

of my necklace

I was without people

oh so summerful

I invented my girlhood

I languaged myself

a knife-body

yet all uncles said

I’m badly woven: bad

muslin: say forgiveness

comes easy say freckledirt

buried the faces

of my sisters: lakewarm

& plentiful—

we kiss we touch

we Magdalene each

other it’s true

during the adhan I pulled

down my tights

nylon black like the chador

of my mother

I licked from my yesterlove

the salt licked

real good—to pluck it again

I must whorl ad nauseam

for the addendum

of flesh the soft

sumac, cottonwood hard

as the nipples

he circled

we are singing

it’s spring and God to my song

is unlistening, unlistening

o Maryam o Miriam

o Mary we are undying

we are not gone

are not slayed we are

unslaying—our hand

wields this life

and I ply myself

out come here

between my legs     

come in          all are welcome        who believe