diversity of queer women's poetic experience: love poems: Janice Gould (girl loves girl)

[alexconall]

The next poem Michelle found.

Wind
Janice Gould

What can I say about someone who
touches my bare feet gently,
then fingers the curly down
on my legs and arms,
and finally ruffles the hair
at the crown of my head,
a gesture I'd never let
another try—but wind,
she's okay.

She whispers
a little in my left ear,
the right one, brushes
my upper lip. Then
she sends a cloud
to give me a chill.

She's up there somewhere,
performing interesting magic,
enticing the elements
to come together—
the hydrogen twins
with the oxygen girl,
maybe even getting
a flicker of electricity
out of the thunderheads
gathering to the south,
hoping they'll spark a fire.

The freest soul I know,
she can shove us around
or caress us in the most
unusual ways. She is
certainly exciting, but
what do I really know
about wind?


Janice Gould is a Koyangk'auwi Maidu poet and an assistant professor in Women's and Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

What can I say about someone who performs interesting magic, Gould wrote. Someone like you, Michelle said. A force of nature. And Lien smiled.


Source: Doubters and Dreamers, Janice Gould