In You the Earth

Little 

rose, 

roselet, 

at times, 

tiny and naked, 

it seems 

as though you would fit 

in one of my hands, 

as though I’ll clasp you like this 

and carry you to my mouth, 

but 

suddenly 

my feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips: 

you have grown, 

your shoulders rise like two hills, 

your breasts wander over my breast, 

my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thin 

new-moon line of your waist: 

in love you loosened yourself like sea water: 

I can scarcely measure the sky’s most spacious eyes 

and I lean down to your mouth to kiss the earth.

Pablo Neruda