Nashville Arts Magazine

Poetry | “Summer Thirst”

by Gayle Hutchinson

Several times

I’ve gone to God

About our love

And what to make of it.

The response is always the same . . . let him love you!

Seems irreverently invalid,

For a man at dusk,

Ministering to my midday.

Afraid of tomorrow,

Quieted by heavenly counsel,

My lost children gather sonnets for me to wear.

My forsaken lovers arrived lauding whispers of daring.

Reminiscent of lemonade are we

Tartness preludes for sweetness

Quenching a summer thirst.

Gayle Hutchinson has used the lyrical name Chamuputuri Chitema, “strong black wind” in the language of Zimbabwe’s Shona people, to signature her two visual poetry collections of original love poems—some EASY+ pieces, a love puzzle, a special edition published in 2005, and These Final Pieces scheduled for 2011 release. These works are dedicated to a love affair with her most inspirational muse, a soul mate mystically named Easy, who pursued her for thirty years and who is thirty years her senior. Hutchinson has been a featured author at international book events in Oakland, California; Maui, Exuma Bahamas, and South Africa. She has been an interview guest on the podcast Arts on Air from DePaul University and radio interviews aired on National Public Radio and Fisk University Radio. Hutchinson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she owns and operates Pathfinding Consulting.