sparkles-to devour her there:
transit to uses: where the traffic
mounts, a chastity packed with lewdness,
a rule, dormant, against the loosely
fallen snow-the thick muscles
working under the skin, the head
like a tree-stump, gnawing: chastity
to employment, lying down bloodied
to bed together for the last time.
POEM
Love being what it is, full of betrayals,
THE LION
Rich and ripe; love being filled with trials,
Juries that slander and black ravens' breasts
That swim like swans in the night. Life being
A true well-motored pageant, the kind
That rain pours on, making the
gilt
run white,
Streamers hang dankly, and pure colors merge.
Love being, life being, the words
Of dissatisfied people; it is not impossible
That we should desire nature above all,
Regarding humans as somehow outside the show,
Late arrivers, mere artifacts, pure rationals.
Let them look, let them think,
Their hopes are retinal.
Ruth Herschberger
1309
