Amplexus Survival Game | TAK Erzinger

“Watercolors from Zimbabwe” Copyright Georgi Tarziev

Amplexus*

What was it that led them 
thus – round mounds of green
like tiny hills, beasts with 
two backs. I envision them,
smooth bodies slick with wet,
the male clinging to her 
smaller frame. Above,
the moon unfurling rivulets of light
their shadows cast along the way,
twines and twangs, huddled in
a soldier’s march.

I stop and wonder, 
a witness above the pond.
They’re gone now, only clouds
of pearls beneath the surface:
life, translucent eggs. We are barren, 
no part of us to be left behind -
we hold on to each other anyway,
time against flesh, its universal.
But here, those spawns will emerge
despite remorse or love.

Cyclical. Persistent. We fade away.

*Amplexus is the mating embrace of frogs and toads

Children’s Community Garden, Arnona, Jerusalem
(Pastel on brown paper grocery bag)
@2022 Ester Karen Aida

Evidence of Survival

Grass sways gently
in the currents, lithe
and golden. In autumn
you slipped away:
indentions left on flesh, 
phantom pains, in place of hugs, 
maybe we expected this to happen.
The anger, your restlessness
turning up. It’s uncertain 
how we’ll grow, difficult to imagine
the people we’ll become. Now that
we’ve been uprooted, what will be
the best environment? Above the surface,
tender shoots capture precipitation,
suggesting sustainability, evidence
that we have the ability, 
to absorb more than we imagined.

Big Game

Predators
in the city

laid tame by
the country.

Early evening shadows
reveal our stripes

created 
by bent blinds.

Every corner of 
our corporeal landscape

explored,

left hungry by 
childlessness.

Instead, we continually
birth our faith,

in love.

Mating season returns—

we’re fully aware
roaming two-by-two

we’ve become 
endangered

winter approaches
and we’ll become

extinct.

Too beguiled to budge
and find another,

our bodies create
a different beast—

we brave our future
side-by-side

and wallow in our lonely
pride.