jessye norman sings “mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”
(“softly awakes my heart”)
samson and delilah opera
                                                                        by camille saint-saëns

her voice
her skin
both the color of the lioness . . .
she breathes
then
her eyes gaze within
and find a hidden desert wildness
where there is another voice   another time
the song
the singing
i am delilah
come to me
for i am the night

Sister Lou Ella Hickman’s poems and articles have appeared in numerous magazines and journals as well as four anthologies. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017 and in 2020. Her first book of poetry entitled she: robed and wordless was published in 2015. (Press 53)