Poem: "Midnight at the Oasis"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is from my fantasy setting, the Whispering Sands desert. There's a tribe there, Waterjewel, that recognizes five genders: male, female, both, neither, and I'm-not-telling. Both is hirshn, which can be any combination of physical and psychological traits spanning male and female; and that can be either inborn or acquired. I'm posting this poem here for a canonical example in the intersex category. It's a love poem to a hirshn dancer.

Midnight at the Oasis

When I see you dancing in the sand, beloved,
Your fatal grace makes my heart skip a beat.

Beside you the wind seems clumsy
And even silk less supple.

Your colors are copper and verdigris, plum purple and apricot
Soft brass and coral set with steely blue

All the colors of the desert in bloom
Touched with the perfume of musk.

You are trim as the tassels on a chieftain's tent
And the soft curves of your body echo those of the dunes.

How you enchant me, hirshn,  your hips and hands
As nimble as your feet, your breasts a beauty blinding.

Your every move evokes the patience of woman,
The power of man, partaking of male and female with equal glee.

You are a blend of contradictions and complements
And I find myself captivated by your dance

As surely as wine befuddles the hungry wasp;
Only let me watch, and adore, and I will rest content.