Added value

I read an utterly interesting
scientific verification

that us humans
are the only beings on earth
that cry.

And I felt proud that
only our own introversion carries
such effusive solicitous glands.

I say - an assumption -
if I were a little tree with lemon buds
and my flower thickened into a lemon
and a hot air, thirsty
for something juicy
wrung the branch's throat
and stole the lemon
cut it in half
with the little theft's innocent
pocket knife
squeezed it forcibly
dripping the juices
in the mouth of its burnt
wide open puff
and a tang of stinging droplets
sprung unintentionally
into your distant eye
- a wish can spring
as far out as you want -

perhaps - an assumption -
your lacrimal glands
would welcome it.


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Personal notes: 

This poem was published as part of the collection 'Greenhouse grass' (2005).

The poem is addressed to an unidentified person who perhaps does not share the poet's sensitivities, vulnerability and compassion - or even passion (love). Dimoula wishes that this person experienced the same intensity of emotions and thoughts that can lead someone to tears.

The poem is full of images that hint to violence and pain  - tears, wringing of a throat, squeezing, acidic droplets, knife, thirst, burning. The poet's choice of inducing tears through the stinging droplets of a lemon is very indicative of the intensity of this poem.The poem's images emphasise the poet's internal ('introversion') struggle with her emotions and thoughts, and her wish that these were acknowledged by the people close to her - perhaps her husband. 

The centrality of pain and emotion in this poem brings to mind Frida Kahlo's work. 

[Untitled]

I acknowledge
it was you, Need, that created the world as a continuum
first with "give to me", then "I don't have".
But not love, not you, Need
love was created by death
out of a wild curiosity
to grasp
the meaning of life.


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Personal notes: 

This poem was published as part of the collection 'The finder's fee' (2010). 
Dimoula addresses human need, which she personifies (hence the capital N). She acknowledges that humans act mainly driven by their needs and that human relationships are driven by an exchange of needs. The third line suggests that possession and denial/deprival can be important elements of a world driven by need. 

However, the poet does not believe that love is mainly driven by need, although one would expect it to be. Instead, Dimoula believes that love is the creation of mortality. Since love is created by something that demands an end, it is doomed to be finite. This statement, that love is death's manifestation of life, subverts the common perception of love as desirable and everlasting.