The Coin of Your Country
When I take my scissors to your shirts,
I am frightened: not that they will whimper
But that they won’t understand the violence I mean.
That kind of violence is the other side of love,
Bright as a light-saber and permanent
As the angel’s swords above Eden
Barring that couple with a final X,
That violence means a love strong as death.
Once Sie ist mein leben, you said, meaning me
And I took those words personally
And knocked upon the door of my heart
Until all its birds flooded to you, in a rush—
Like the Iroquois, I tugged on our peace-pipe,
I wrote your name in smoke. Then went home
With my pockets rolling in shining glass beads,
My pockets so rich with the coin of your country.
Copyright Credit: Monica Ferrell, "The Coin of Your Country" from Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry. Copyright © 2010 by Monica Ferrell. Reprinted by permission of Monica Ferrell.
Source: Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian (University of Arkansas Press, 2010)