To love in a language prised from my wishbone. To sing a landscape where village girls burst the moon with giggles. To dance through the fattest eye of a rice-grain – to do all these in peace and war is the wish embodied in Merlinda Bobis’ poetry. From her epic poem ‘Cantala of the Warrior Woman Daragang Magayon’ to lyric reflections on longing, and finally to an erotic poetry-dance-drama, Bobis traces the cartography of desire and its intimacy with death.