Lowering of the Gaze

Tell the believing men to lower their gazes and guard their orifices . . . and tell the believing women to lower their gazes and guard their orifices

—Quran 24:30 & 31

I love the man of lowered gaze

and the woman of lowered gaze

And I love the man who looks hungrily

and the woman who looks hungrily

I have been the man with the hungry gaze

and the man of iron restraint

whose eyes leave what is covered, covered

I have been the woman with the ravenous mouth

and the woman with the disciplined will

like an axe sharply splitting wood

like an axe at the moment it is lifted

poised, in that pause before descent

And I am the gaze and the pause

and the wood that is split

Source: My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit (Press 53, LLC, 2020)