crack the clay envelope

[radiantfracture]

[ETA: thank you, sabotabby! You'd think a so-called scholar would look at the receipts.]

A curious and wonderful artefact has appeared in the mail.

At first I thought it was my copy of The Play of Gilgamesh by Edwin Morgan, arrived under another name, perhaps in a new edition. By someone else. Hmm.

But no, upon examination, it is another book entirely, a dual collection of poems in Spanish and English, called Enkidu is dead and not dead/esta muerto y no lo esta by a Tucker Lieberman. Who seems to be a trans poet of whom I do not recall knowing until now.

There is a beautiful illustration of Gilgamesh and Enkidu embracing on the cover by artist Luis Carlos Barragan.

How about this, then (from the first poem, "How I Thought it Worked"):

We live forever, Enkidu and I. This is how:
when we do not like the story,
he breaks the tablet,
speaks the ibis words: Send us back.

or this (from "Enkidu is Gone"):

Enkidu makes the feathers grow on the hawk

Or this:

If I am the rope, and you are the weaver--
If I lower you into a well, and you rip out the threads--
If a space in my heart lets the blood through--
If we cannot weave together, but you weave and I weave-

That is the first poem.

Thank you. It is a beautiful gift.

{rf}