Each Other’s

1.

Pretend these words are from the Bible
Pretend these words are from the Bible
Shekinah Shekinah
Pretend these words are from the Bible
They sat in the garden
under the willows
with their notebooks and pens
on their tanned crossed legs
Let’s write songs
to each other’s lovers
pretending to be each other
pretending to love each other’s lover
let’s write songs to each other’s lover.
So she wrote a song
to a beautiful man
with long thick hair
and eyes like doves
who runs through the mountains
with his arms full of gifts
who throws petals down to
the stream that runs forever
Amen

2.

And he wrote a song
to a woman of wheat
with hair of vines and flowers
and hands that brushed his body
like the leaves of the jasmine
tree so smooth so fragrant
she who sits by the river
eyes as dark as embers
watching the waters run forever
so he wrote for her
let’s write songs
And she wrote for him
to each other’s lovers
and for a while
I’ll write to him
they loved each other’s lovers
you write to her
He was loved by her
under the willow
She loved by him
here in the garden
sitting and running by the river
blessed be the morning
whose waters run forever
Pretend these words are from the Bible
Pretend these words are from the Bible
Pretend these words are from the Bible
and that we will never die.

Elizabeth Swados is a Tony-nominated, Obie-award-winning theater artist, Guggenheim and Ford Foundation recipient. She has written several novels and her theatrical credits span from Broadway, to off-Broadway, to around the world, and include “Runaways,” “Missionaries” and “Jabu.”