Did I Love Too Much?

I am the prodigal son’s mother

I kept the baby swaddled too tight
until he left to straighten his knees
in the world of temptations

I gave the wind my flesh to bite
for forty years in the desert
with a rough sack dress over my naked body

I washed the feet of sacred statues
with oil from olive-tree nipples

I gave the rain the color of tears
crying for my baby
from the mouth of a cavern
open to the storm

I learned the barren law
of the damned souls’ forest

Like a sunflower I raised myself at sunrise
going round until the night left me bent to the earth
with my heart black and heavy for my son
who did not return
because of my great love