St. Peter Damian

if we’d all just rock the cradle of our sex

softly, without worrying whether the floorboards

creak beneath, these mornings wouldn’t be so

rough.

before the sheets. before the entanglements of leg

and lip, those toes that curl when kissed. restore it all.

get back to the smooth wail of the body

emerging.

this next time is the first time. pure as the moons

hidden in your teeth. the milk of your eyes. touch me

as if I don’t know what it means. as if you’re the only one

I’ve ever loved.

________________________

Peter Damian, an eleventh-century monastic leader and Church reformer, has received a modest place in the historiography of early medieval philosophy because of his little tract De divina omnipotentia. In this work, Damian treats two questions related to the limits of divine power: can God restore virginity to a woman who has lost it, and, can God change the past?

- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy