94 days after the wrangle
we did not taste each other's words,
on the staircase a helpless woman gasps on a stretcher
& that was the 7th body; going…

the opponent coughed, reeling
to my door
her heart racing, then a pause-
to make sure it was my face,
then, slowing down, slowing down…

"Please believe me when I say I love you".
Imagining the strangeness and
how the sun was dim that morning, I
found it hard to believe her.

"Please believe me when I say I love you
To the outgoing bodies…
To that feverish boy who can not hear me
I gift Israel's relentless faith your way; & to
those who can not hope any longer in
the hoping". she sang; sweeping back her footprints.

That evening she returned to my door, geared
in a nose mask & thick velvet gloves
not meeting the nice pile of shoes
in my next neighbor's balcony; she said
"Please believe me when I say I love you".

and that was the first time I had heard her in a faint voice.
Reimagining the strangeness & how
the sun was spearing down that night

I believed her; feeling
an old beginning & a new end
& wanting to believe her wholly;
I touched her dingy dread
it was Jesus at the door.