Ingrid M. Calderón - come to me

Los Angeles poet Ingrid M. Calderón breathes a little fire into the cold hours of February with her passionate “come to me”. Partly a conjuration as well as poetry, Ingrid’s poem burns with need and want for a love both sacred and profane. The contrast of this poetic summoning’s passages against one another sway rhythmically between that rose quartz sacredness and dark yearning.

come to me

I don’t think I’ve ever been loved the way I need / the love I require is flames inside flames repugnant respect / debauched adoration / I want everything in halves / half sacred / half profane / half-light / half dark / I want hands that are capable of squeezing life out of me / and instead, hang lithely on the side of a cliff, suspended in mid-flight —waiting to catch me / the love I need, is a father and a whore / the pew and the prayer / I am a room, emptied of clutter /
I hold on to nothing / I make space / I stay hollow / I watch my swollen heart pulse with a promise of a miracle, in the form of someone other than me / I’m tired of my own hands / of my own body/ I’m restless with the thought of what I’m supposed to do with so much time and so much rumbling / the thought consumes my mind, and my mind becomes Gomorrah / I don’t want to be bothered or forgiven in this moment / I want explosion with copious amounts of depth / I want life explained / I want God in my eyelids / I want flames inside flames / I want to be a sacrifice, of love

Ingrid M. Calderón

Ingrid M. Calderón is a poet, tarot reader, collagist & the editor-in-chief of resurrection magazine & resurrection press. She is the author of twenty-eight poetry books and lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband, painter John Collins.