Yet it is the time of warmth and long light.
"When the beasts have gone then you must go too."
The People leave their place at the rim of rocks
That are furred with white cold.
They reach the valley floor that is empty but fouled
And smelling of the beasts that were there.
They follow the beasts down the valley,
Listening for their thunder,
Listening for the scream of wind in the eagles' wings.
They have left their caves and their hunting places.
They are leaving everything they know.
Their dogs go with them.
VALERIE WOHLFELD
Cameo
Caught in his arms-great ruffled
fish rococo-scaled in petals' calico
folds, scrolls of lace and matching hair bow–
pressed to his buttonhole:
carnation's fringed and mottled
lips pursed to my closed lips-I stood soul
to spectral soul drowning with the drowned.
Gelid wax-lit eye: the fish outward-bound.
Wave-seized cameo,
onyx sea : frothy silhouette, sunk-stone below.
Flawless pleats, canopy-unwound
dorsal and ventral banners, flounce-spined camisole,
silk-veiled fin-rayed poison:
scorpion-fish dressed coral-masked deception.
