„Variation on a theme by Rumi“

Start with patience—with longing.

O longing—thorny vine growing

from the dirt of my mind—I begin again

in a pin prick, a trickle tightly running

down your body’s slender pockets, each

one enough for my mouth, my fingertips

to catch on, to wait patiently within.

O to love by longing—patiently—forming

stars in the roof of my mouth, kissing

starry cinders into a wine we devour

from cupped hands—beloved, be lunatic

be savage, be a wink & a grin sent across

an ocean, be thirst, the hands holding

my face & laughing—start with patience

believe me, O longing, believe in me

the way starving forget-me-nots believe

in sun & water & be the question beloved

be question & the patience of searching,

never finding answers—only longing after them.

BIO: Roberto Carlos Garcia 

Roberto Carlos Garcia is a native New Yorker, a poet, storyteller and essayist. He is founder of the cooperative press Get Fresh Books Publishing, A Nonprofit Corp. In December, 2020, Garcia’s third book of poetry, Elegies, was released by FlowerSongPress. His poems have been widely published in POETRY Magazine, The BreakBeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNEXTBettering American Poetry Vol. 3, The Root, Those People, Rigorous, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, The Acentos Review, Lunch Ticket, and many others.