Jug of Emptiness

 

The jug of emptiness
was full.
It contained the night
and overflowed 
with effervescent stars.
So I drank everything.
Did I not see you face
reflected in the bottom
of my cup?
We first got drunk, you and I, 
when we were still each other,
long before we were two.
And we still can't tell 
the difference 
between laughter and tears,
this world and that.
All we do now is sing.
Endangered seeds 
swim through our eyes
seeking sanctuary 
in other gazes.
An old earth dissolves 
into the new one
every time we blink.
There is a sound 
that roses make at midnight 
when the pearl-fingered moon 
fondles them,
and they burst into bloom.
We hear it when we breathe.
Nadeemati, remind me,
O tender companion 
in this blessed inebriation,
I've forgotten the password 
for entering the kingdom 
of silence.

Illustration: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Edmund Dulac.
"Nadeemati": Arabic, female wine drinking companion.