Cut out the jets! for I shall mount and ride
This web-foot creature down the moving tide."
She who has waited while past years of space
Her lover came, this Leda in reverse,
Will bear her Captain down; in what wet cave
The two are couched, or whether he can breathe
Being gathered to her element, I leave
To his determination. From their height
Castor and Pollux lean across the night.
Barbara Howes
GOOSEGIRL
Again the careless goose walks over my grave,
Again the splayed foot's echo radios
ill
Toward me aswirl in the happy amphitheater
Where love stood still.
This is the other side of passion, for
Our days careen in paradox; this toy,
My heart,
is
colder at white heat than ice,
A jeopardy of joy.
The dreadnought goose will tread its fill on us yet,
And semaphore foreknowledge of those drives
Toward love, of love, and all, all counterfeit,
Our carelong lives.
