Full Moon

Love Sonnet

LXXXIX

by Pablo Neruda

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes,

I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands

to pass their freshness over me once more:

I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.

I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you

to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together,

to continue to walk on the sand we walk on.

I want what I love to continue to live

and you who I love and sang above everything else

to continue to flourish, full-flowered:

so that you can teach everything my love directs

you to,

so that my shadow can travel along with your hair,

so that everything can learn the reason for my song.

Colors of Summer Quiltie ~ vt ~ heading south