I whisper into your ear, so you hear  
            and do not hear 
                       –  Ella Zeltserman from The Air is Electric

I whisper into your ear, so you hear  
and do not hear 
my rhythms fill the pauses
in your breath, my rhyme
encircles you like a villanelle 

a room of ruby velvet, oil lamp glow
I stand before you, hair loosely
falling, body concealed only
by the shimmer of a veil 

the curves of my country 
   the rise and the dip and the long  
     valley where you once laid your hand  

(its warmth and its weight summoned me
           wordlessly        from sleep)

I pour into your glass sweet drops of Lethe 

we shed our skin and swim toward each other 

you and I together only in the thin substance 
   of dream

©

Josephine LoRe’s words have been read live on the stage and in Zoom rooms across the internet, put to music, danced, and integrated into paintings and visual art. She has two collections of poetry and photography, Unity and the Calgary Herald Bestseller The Cowichan Series. Individual pieces have appeared in FreeFall, YYC Portraits of People, Pendemic Poetry and literary journals and anthologies in nine countries. Her poem The Tea Set was shortlisted for the 2019 Room Poetry Prize.  Josephine has an MA in Comparative Literature from l’Université de Rouen, an Honours BA in Languages and Literature from the University of Toronto, and a bilingual BEd from l’Université Laurentienne. 

https://www.JosephineLoRePoet.com