Majid Naficy: Billie Holiday

Oh Billie, I dance with you.
Holding your waist with my hand
I circle around on tiptoe.
Your playful rhythm leaks into my veins
And the salt of your skin sinks into my blood.
The sea is far but I hear its sound
The sea is big but fits in my body.
Let us cast off our shoes
And step on its sandy carpet.
Little waves grab our feet
and draw us toward green waters.

Oh Billie, I dance with you
Holding the hem of your long skirt
I walk gently on the skin of the sea.
A wandering wind wraps around our bodies
And an albatross opens its wings on our shoulders.

There, across the sea is the land of my childhood
With fragile trees that like the tips of your fingers
Are now growing all over my skin.
The sea is borderless but beats in my heart
The earth is vast but fits into my skull.
Tonight no border can separate you from me.
But... suddenly my hand lets go of the radio antenna.
The blues singer begins to whine.
Ah, my dance partner is not imaginary!
I hold her waist as before.
Her velvet voice rises again
And takes me back to the nightly dance.

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of Billie Holiday.

I jumped out of the frying pan
And right into the fire
When I lost me a cheating man
And got a no-count liar

Swipe the old for the new one
And now the new one's breaking my heart

I jumped out of the frying pan
And right into the fire
Lord, right into the fire 

Poem copyright 2021 Majid Naficy