On Finding the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Dante’s “Inferno”

A lover undresses, with permission.

Picture the body becoming real.

                      I picture becoming real intimate.

It is strange to think of legs as closed.

                        I open my legs for strangers. I widen,

stretch. What belongs here? Don’t say a door.

Instead of belonging, I eat the door,

                 make an animal flap for the four-legged.

I’m on all fours. Ass slapped. An animal flap.

            Violence begets. Love circumvents. I swallow

                my would-be begottens. Love, this violence.

        To all doormen I say ahlan wa sahlan.

Man, this door shudders. Familiarly, easy.

     I undress permission with splintered hands.