“eventually / even scorched earth goes green though beneath it // the dead might still luxuriate in their rage my ancestor / was a dervish saint” Kaveh Akbar

luxure obsolete
from the whistling verb
float

rather the 1660s relay
reluctance lasting and
first attested sometime around

1661 lather reluctantly wrestle
stains see related lasciviousness
lust 1520 screams obsolescence

the verb first fury related
which attests sometime
in 1660 the king burns grace

which is reluctance latin relates
60 pounds of cake perhaps shake
shares a common origin with the greek lygos

pliant twig luxurie debauchery
dissoluteness lust 12c modern french
luxurie debauchery dislocated

arm relate the 1660s relate
14c lasciviousness leathered up
in reluctant magnificence

Excerpt from Kaveh Akbar’s “River of Milk” used without permission, but with unconditional love, from the Poetry Foundation.