Quotes from Olga Broumas

When you died I didn't weep nor dream but knew you like a god breathe in each healing we begin.

Sisterhood - that is, primary and bonding love from women - is, like motherhood, a capacity, not a destiny. It must be chosen, exercised by acts of will.

I am a woman who understands the necessity of an impulse whose goal or origin still lie beyond me.

I am a woman committed to a politics of transliteration, the methodology of a mind stunned at the suddenly possible shifts of meaning - for which like amnesiacs in a ward on fire, we must find words or burn.

We came together like months in a lunar year, measured in nights, dividing perfectly into female phases. Like women anywhere living in groups we had synchronous menses. And had no need of a wound, a puncture, to seal our bond.

III. I take my love to Manita. Swift-boned, green- eyed, dressed in her dark skin and hair, I take my Love in on fire. Manita moans. Manita's hands flow delicate as insects, agile as fish, cool as the shifting water, the night- quiet lake. I take my Love to her hand on fire. She takes my love.