CELEBRATION
by Mari Evans

I will bring you a whole person

and you will bring me a whole person

and we will have us twice as much

of love and everything

I be bringing a whole heart

and while it do have nicks and

dents and scars,

that only make me lay it down

more careful-like

An’ you be bringing a whole heart

a little chipped and rusty an’

sometime skip a beat but

still an’ all you bringing polish too

and look like you intend

to make it shine

And we be bringing, each of us

the music of our selves to wrap

the other in

Forgiving clarities

soft as a choir’s last

lingering note our

personal blend

I will bring you someone whole

and you will bring me someone whole

and we be twice as strong

and we be twice as sure

and we will have us twice as much

of love

and everything

**selection taken from A DARK AND SPLENDID MASS
Poems by Mari Evans 1992