LITERARY: "Love Without Fear" by Jasmine Fiona Sanchez

Quiet affection kept behind closed doors— 

The poets had tried to keep us a secret, 

While the damnation of hell 

Continued to gnaw off my right ear 

As it chanted again and again and again: 

ILLICIT. TABOO. DEBARRED. 

Though, at the very least, 

The words coiled together  

And dissolved into thin air 

Whenever you were near. 

 

(Quickly, now! Kiss me! 

While God still had his back turned around. 

Tomorrow, we'd have to pretend 

That we did not know of love 

So He could keep on looking after us.) 

 

Shielded affection, birthed under the protection of leaves— 

Beneath the shade of a sturdy oak tree, 

Molded from our own memories, 

With our hands settled across our thighs. 

I had wondered what was so wrong, 

For wanting our love to be bared; 

For looking at a girl the same way, 

A wife longed for a husband. 

It was still love, after all— 

Your touch that lingered in the pocket of my dress, 

My eyes looked at the shape of your lips for too long. 

 

(Forgive me, for they were merely an instrument 

To the imperishable want residing in my stomach. 

Forgive me, for I was selfish enough 

to experience hell 

If it meant I could continue wanting you.) 

 

Brilliant affection knocked on my window— 

My eyes began to blur from your luminance. 

Perhaps it had been a punishment, 

For glancing at you in the first place. 

But you kept on sprinkling imprints; 

All over my skin, 

And that, that part of you— 

That part of love, 

And that part of loneliness, 

Still stayed; 

Long after my mother had told me 

That we'd be burned into ashes 

If I wouldn't remain untempt  

To the devil's advances. 

 

(And I shall pray to the God my mother loved, 

I shall ask Him for His lenience and your protection, 

But I will not ask for mine. 

For even if He stops loving me for my sins, 

I will never stop loving you.

Photo from:

salisart

Published by: Airene Nicole Q. Pamintuan

Date Published: February 13, 2022

Time Published: 6:16 PM