"The calf"

a 2024 poetry booklet

Two Lovers And A Naturalist By A Real Gully

Dig fingers into the russet-earth;

humus, warm and pillow-soft.

Break the skin, plum-fruit skin;

prunus domestica, sun-blushing.

Low-hanging rosaceae bulbs blacken,

crack apart, gummy cartilage spilling;

eviscerated guts. Primitive-enflamed

plasma in mantle and core comes to earth,

grab; boney fingers of a yellowed doily pluck

the sun’s rivulets.       Stock up, she, a measly four-legged

eater of berries-and-twigs, Rodentia, half-awake

on the floor of gnarled bark and lichen.

Steely chloroplast organelles eras apart, starving

arms reaching out futile to bridge

the Cosmos. 2.15 Ga.

Red-clay, stream-slippery with okra-perfuming

sweat, palpitates underneath, oxygen-rich erythrocytes

running along meaty arteries,             fleece-thick

endothelial, muscularis levis, fibroblastus, and lamb-

white leukocytes. Filling that grumbling belly, that

borning-again arteria pulmonalis; the endothelium and

plum-skin epithelium; those milky egg sacs,

the alveoli inflating like snot balloons,

so that he can breathe. Soon starving

erythrocytes, claret-red and unwarmed by nuclei

will clamber as a high tide into his Ursae-downed

Father and Mother venae cavae.

This systema respiratorium, a miracle,

silky gas-filled bladders in the dorsal cavity

chewing up and swallowing tissue

to make our lungs. 60 Ma.

Shining emerald needle-leaves,

polyps of stony coral,

              undulating, waving tentacles –

Cupressus, sempervirens.

              Daughter of the Late Triassic,

                     photosynthesis’ master; magician;

                                    sculpting icy swords into perfect hexagons,

softer blow,

carrying, sacrificing

                              water from the interior to the aperture –

                                                             grumbling belly remembering warmth’s phantom, muscles, hair-quivering –

                          dying only when old age commands.

Tune ears onto the singing goldfinches,

Carduelis cardeuli–

honey-sweet, harmony

with honey bees’ beating wings,

air molecules shaking back, forth,

up, down,

dig fingernails into thick juicy peach slices,

        blushing-red exocarp pierceable by milk teeth,

        pit excavated by his spoon so she won’t choke.

Articulatio genera and fibulae buckle, buttons

on a child’s thread-bare coat.

All humans long to burrow between each other’s

ribs.

***

‘Good Counsel’

Gold coins, gauze-tailed cod in sulfur-red earth,

Buy kopis’ iron walls, battlements, dodecahedron crowns;

Smooth as chariot dolphins, blubber glistening by silver-bowed hand,

Slit throat of black bull, carve fatty liver, fatty heart, for Samos’ son;

Buy hyacinth-violet hands, sturdy of flame-forging,

Good xenia, good bread, wine, to mend blackened coals.

Date-plum-coloured ocean ebbs; rosy flesh, muscle red.

Olympus-cliffs of marigold-gneiss, basalt, thick-wrinkling;

Ivory swan and bull, felt wing, glittering horns, hooves,

Silk-haired horse frothing of nerion-milk, wildebeest-bucking;

Virgin soil peeks moulting knolls, half-sister silvering hen-bosom:

Hoplite brings bastards; palm-barren of father’s command;

Nor diamond towers, rings coiling ‘round as rose petals,

Turrets o’erseeing white-armed Gaia’s rocky organs – bending,

Cliffs and ravines, shields and basins, brave of sailors finding ocean’s end,

Borning precious métalla, ore, coin, armory, homeware,

Swimming glittering-fish – gilding with fruits of wind-footed Urania’s seed.

Nor watery mothers, serpentine, myth-old tongues-owners;

Fair niece whittles needles, knits asphodel-crown,

Wails lament, greedy fathers, fallen women-kin, sings wine-

Coloured seas’ praise; Lady of the ferrying dead, shepherdess of,

Miners and blacksmiths, bakers and weavers, bearer of  sons and daughters,

Golden blood, milk-and-psyche, grain-and-coal,

Time’s tales, for nursemaids.

Nor clandestine caves spun, of lovely-haired Psamathe,

Shy gifter of  veiled passageways, clayed soil, strongest fins, tail;

Ivory, black bull hecatombs if bright skin stayed, little pearl,

Little drop pomegranate, smooth ruby, sweeter nectar.

Poison’s plumes, gleaming coats, horns dory-carved;

Rugs, glove in golden-fleece, sugar roses, crocuses, violets, irises, lilies, larkspurs,

Return lovely-dancing feet!

‘Pon cliffs of marigold, foaming in basalt, perch, wide-eyed,

Fragile purple-shields cradle, a corona, bright fists, for her.

***

‘Praixidice’

Mother’s nightingale caws dusk-black,

Gold-wheat claws scratch as arrow-heads.

Water-logged feathergrass bend, sigh east,

Vertiginous cow-parsley drowse rock-phalanx.

Apollo salivates onto last tips of green,

Tethys’ watery daughters, high-headed blue-blood,

Weave tales of limp sea, salt-encrusted shells,

Acrid to Kore’s helikhryson-pistil nose.

Gigantic oaks pierce Eos breast, tattling voyeurs,

Stifling amphibious atoms steal winged breath.

Father-kings pet, pluck grandma’s newborns, tarsus-bound,

Meaty hands, pollen-bronzed, ever-dulling mother’s scythe.

Hare-white phantom refuse dance, backstitch slipper lead.

Pocket crumbs of immortal-armour’s liquid-gold for,

Parch-mouth –  stroke heavenly, humus-dark coats, fair,

Fertile deer, sow, crane.

Nimble from cliffs of Titan blacksmithing,

O’er Skiron-flogged silica shores.

Honour Samos’ mercury crown, his graceful-eye-

And-forefinger: count, pick, to lay, to trace, atop flat thigh, 

Rose, curling triplets, nestling newborn-hares to mother’s breast,

Crocus, ovoid tentacles, bursting forth out of desert-rock,

Violet, bowing cicada-wings, swains, reciters of brightest verse,

Iris, Helen’s skirt Aether-spun ‘round bronze-shell ankles, thighs,

Lily, beautiful-cheek’s teeth forke of cold-shadowy daughters,

Larkspur, dolphin calves, soaring in defying chariot-paths – quiet,

Amend that daughter of Spartan glen, green-winged leaves, for

Venus’ loud-roaring loin. Of fierce and merciless,

Woman-born king, squash-yellow stamens bore of soil-

Logged larynx, for shining-brother, his time-old, thalassic,

Admirer. Septet of amber-weaving sisters, grieving yet,

Tapestry shining in hand, Italic slippers clothing light,

Toes, ash-black trunks for foolish games played by male-kin.

Olive-wreathed youth, ovary of milky-cries, for her fair mother, O’ blesser,

Of harvests, O’ feeder of children!

Somniferous poppy-seeds, dark-earth iron, blow:

Bruised-henbane shields of six, ring twin tissue-crowns.

***

‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’

A yawning crate full of navel oranges, sweet-rosy

necrosis. Placid bellies mock

starving wallets           – chipped-paint zippers, fin-

gers bruised dogears. Fleece-fraying,            corn-husk strings at din-

nertime – sugarcotton

burning clean orifices virgin-rosy,

noon-time cracks itself open, white and yellow shards hose-

ing mossy-dog-eared walls,    born     powdered-lemon

and shining, pungent hydroxide.        Smooth            fin-

gers massaging hemispheres, sews

cute long-sleeved sweater, tissues clean porcelain

plates and dinnerware, porcelain cheeks unblemished, rosy.

Creeping beetle savours moulting rind, delicacy

of jeweled flesh awaiting-patient.      Antenna trusty,

smelling thick fructose, ancient          binder of good bone,

strong eyes and nerves,           no needle nor nail rusty.

                        Leafy-green organic stock white marble fridge –

                        Amythest-porphyry frons, wilting, crumbling fingers,

                         Milky sap, soft, pearlescent, swirling capillaries,

                        Fluttering-fans guard nutrient-woolen fist-sized hearts.

                        Organic-tweed grocer-bags rub fine-tweed hemlines,

                        Buttons sewn to holes, Polysporin-coats on rose scar-tissue.

                                    Doily-paper crib, caressed mobile, fridge:

                                    Sweet-fruity cereal chorales in cupboard, ginger hearts,

                                    Iced buttery – down-luscious, melting-plush fingers;

                                    And pure, spotless eggs, thick-warming calcium for tissue;

                                    Quilted-cotton blanket bundles freezing wood-capillaries,

                                    Muffles loud-hauntings, petrified feet torn hemlines.

                                                Quilted-cotton blanket thumps as beating-hearts,

                                                Stitches thread to count, trace letters, for treacle-sunk fingers –

                                                Sugarglitter, pungent shiny-lemon or clean tissues,

                                                Plump peach apple-flesh – soft and fraying – red capillaries.

                                                No lilac-cavities, skin-singed tar-black, fridge-

                                                Fractals formed of pink-epithelial caught in hemline.

                                                Rough-rinded navel oranges; crates calcifying capillaries;

                                                Fleecy, lotions burning mouth, nose, fingers;

                                                Egg-round and pearly over weeks, waking heart-

                                                Rate. Paint birdscratched walls and fridge.

                                                Iron wrinkling, cute fine-tweed; blanket-loose and waxy-hemlines.

                                                Tissue bloody, wistful-hydroxide for powder-white tissues.

                                    Polysporin-beads – milky-pearls – nail of finger;

                                    Beetles million-claws scuttling along doilies, capillaries,

                                    Moulting, moulting etiolate-porcelain and ochre-calcium; fridge-

                                    Fractals, scuttling-beetles. Burrowers into wood and hemlines,

Treacle-pulps infectors – molded lemon-shine and starving-heart,

                                    Peeling-vainly; staking clot-blood disintegrate doily-tissue.

Thick-milky,                buttery purulence – stake-fingers,

Charred-lilac, gaping cavities –         mawing orifices,             mauling capillaries.

Bursting bloody-globs like a lullaby-             melody,             epithelial-hemlines,

                                    Sweetness, warmth of a ripe-plump apple,                 God’s very fridge,

                                    Sweetness, warmth at             the bottom of the needle, epithelial-heart,

Tissues -clean – waxy-white coats,                 sew pure-white tissue.

Knit treacly     -cells, -membranes, -capillaries;

Fine-fleecy bridges     rungs in shining-woolen stakes –                   fist-sized hearts –

Glittering-clean quilted-cotton. Rungs          forming letters and numbers; calcium-tissues;

Happy-dancing fingers           and happy lullaby-whispers, butter,             apple luscious, melting-plush; fridge,

Chorales and chorales of       plump peach-gold apples, dancing-feet and -fingers picked     out of grocer-bags,    dancing-fingers,

Knitting cotton-tissues           gold and satin, rungs and rungs.             Juicy, ochre-calcium –           pearls soaking hemline.

Jeweled-beetle regurgitates shell,

necrose lilac peels –   

blue-black hemispheres cower –       

bled-yolks are ether.              

Trembling particles slip, dewy –

sugarcotton-wilt,

hairs                autumnal, creeping, then all,

at once. Bacillus,

milky-sweet.   Dog-eared morning barks:

antenna sheepish,       

                                    caught enwrapping fascicle-slicked,

canines; reddish shards,

            well-rusting     pierce organic pock-

ets,       tender ancient.

                        Yellow-spore peeks, gentle-yawn, por-

                        celain light-flecking.

***

Ma Mère l'Oye

I.

Apple flesh ruddies,

Burning at first, milky pus rushing quick.

Hungry fibres reaching up, braiding epidermis,

Fat and spongey. Milk-blood droplets spilling

From fleshy womb, myrrh-sweet entombs.

II.

Pillow-plumed calcium, radius and carpometacarpus,

Melting down, gelatin, sponge, protein,

Sun-warmed iron leaping,

Sugar-water to nourish ruptured neck, tubercle, shaft,

Shattered rosy-marrow comb, fresh-cream diamonds

Crystallizes.

III.

Waxy oily globules, saffron, enfold,

Passing from pink nipple to pinker tongue.

Golden vines growing along sooted throat’s

Chapel walls. Lily-white coat curling, coarse

As wild summer-corn kernels mortar-and-pestling

Into supper.

IX.

Little toes, lily-pad wet, squishy,

Stamping waxy crescents in mother’s earthy arms.

Wool-thread running, placid inlet, betwixt clay thumbs,

Gibbs’ pearlen hand-pressed memory proud, charting,

Eyes’ seeing ultramarine, edacious fleshy wing.

X.

Gold olive oil, powders myrrh, cinnamon, sugar,

Callousing plump-berry fingers – communion before,

Mother’s spoon. Glutenous yarn-strings, dewy straw,

Reaching out, gulping oxygen.

Almonds, sardius-eggs, perfect fractals,

Burrowing in peat-moss.

Begging to be fattiest atoms,

Whole-cream yellow,

Doctoring back-together Her purulent wound.

***

Egg Tempera

Nibble white-flour loaf, stolen treasure.

Honey-sticky, fingers squish plump red grapes, crystals

salt rubbed like tithing-coins. Pink nose twitches, soothsayer.

Black-pepper fur is standing, flour-paws,

pale-starched cloth knocks, bustle stained yellow-olive. Thistle

bellies from heavens-white rose, devout first to Father-law.

Auxo’s supper, copper-blonde, lovely-arms,

dressing up in gold-sheaf, blue and white dishes full,

butter-suckling cockerels, pigs, salmon red as apples.

Bleed, saturate gold-damask bodice pearl-sutured;

wax-cracking flesh awaiting trial, lovely-headed Laura,

knelt patient only to die unremarkable, sainted-tutor

to Jovian families, peacock-crested, olive-anointed.

Bacchus’ hands reach across, salt-tower.

Caesar’s wine, Nile river’s concubine, enameled spoons for

clergy’s callouses. Medallioned Artemis’ sheath cowers,

Actaeon’s swift-footed queen incinerates papers – measure

maiming, smiting, fairer wrists, clandestine, soft-clay stylus. Sow

of shorter limbs, weaker punch is bred on fatty grains, combed in butter,

muzzled in rapture, pearly-enameled iron burned,

shrieking, with the raised cross. Fingers not to waver, epistles

not to lie, quiver away from freshwater, shrink, from sun’s drizzle,

apostates happiest dressed in emerald, lazuli, ruby and marble.

Rain falls indigo and violet, drawing

memories of a barefoot, flower-robed past, long-culled,

glimmering in stones’ mud on lily-washed hands, toes, weed-full.

Graceful-yoking mountains, wallcreepers cawing.

Turquoise-blooming gardens, bountiful-Venus’ sculptures, her pleasure –

white-stone buildings crumble in to clouds; left is only God’s watchtower.

Far-aiming Po’s fleeing tributaries, diamonds soar,

along crowning cold, pure peaks, running hooves, stags, stallions – law

of cracking fleshy and juicy apples of trunks, figs of vines, never-ploughed.

Prince wolf-suckled, yellow-barley hands, calls –

fair shepherd for teething flock, clothed in hand-spun wool, stitches

in pale-green, ravine-swirling vines and bright-eyed marigolds;

courageous-Isis, iron-brawn, secret keeper of life, left home to know.

Gentlest ears – peaked lily petals – blush clove pink. Towering

golden boughs glisten in lovely-haired sunlight, slick, in blessed-oil;

sweat of myrrh, cinnamon and fragrant cane; white-rose pores, cloth fluttering,

sweet as salt. Fluttering whisper, untouched by scorn;

rough-hands warming Lancelot's tender-flame, lemon-inked paper

folded up in to a rosary’s pouch, tucked in to his bed of gold-straw.

Finch-winged Love hands an oil lamp, darkness-piercer, watching over,

towers cold, windowless and bolted-closed; fists of

yellowed-paper for air, touch, known only by letters – gristle

of what Our God laid before Eve. She, not plaything for inert dawn.

Oath by bleeding-palms, lance-consecrated, fair-haired Dido,

soothsayer leaps, flour powdering trembling teenage-fingers.

***

Ode to the Seas’ Nourisher

Bright Amphitrite, my lute humbly calls to you,

Trident-sharer, most graceful dancer, whether on,

Polished stone, or turquoise seas, or shores of foam and orogen,

Enchanter of dolphin, pride, ox-eyed, love-sired, is your blue,

Quelled by pearls, abalone shells, gold combs and pottery, drew,

From Talos’ porcelain coast to great-bearded Pontus’ loin?

By your arms outstretched, from Tyrian shoals to mounts of dawn,

Cupping sapphires and rubies; from iridescent basins,

Many-coloured fishes, octopuses and corals, graceful flew,

Whales of grey, and black, to white-flame’s columns conspiring,

Into constellations, a map of the Old Man of the Sea’s dwelling?

By your gentle finger gesturing, wagging, plucking threads,

Of ambitious nereids, and proud barley-bred heroes,

Burying in, calling on, honouring, fathers of old for healing;

Or sipping ambrosia with patient lips, spooned from fairest Hera’s,

Shining pitcher, seated hands-folded, at the right-hand on aster-laureling,

Olympus. One of a queen, rather than one meek of tens,

Of daughter-heads; miles beyond a pale sliver of that furiously-snoring,

Aegean.

Bright Amphitrite, may your blue ever be born,

From your husband’s – gloriously-throned, and earth-carrying –

Golden-scars – he, ravisher of true,

Virgin of Athena upon her temple’s walls; sewer,

Of golden-grain sheafs, in the guise of a brother-stallion;

Gorgeous mortal-princesses, envious of earthly men,

And lesser deities, alike, then hiding, then honest;

And, pursuer of many more, humble and divine-sown,

Unyielding, until,

Soft bodies turn to rock, graceful arms become wing,

He, scorned-thief of springs and rain,

And wrathful-bringer of salty-floods and cetea to,

Trying, strife-stricken provinces, waning in the earth-shaker’s terror.

May blue be born from a desire to,

Evade betraying fathers, all uncles, thigh-caressing,

Trade topaz-onions and emerald-cabbage for silver, gold coins,

Spin, mast finest linen-sails, and carve, fasten thickest pines,

Cross, Scythian steps’ shining-ambers, iris-robed Serica of silk trees’ felling;

Holly-fields’ gallant horses, violet-soil horn’s temples fortune-telling;

Last, iridescent-glinting scales of great-Pontus’ serpentine,

To wine-red, bubbling-foam, of the underworld’s flume.

Bright Sea Queen, forgive my candid speech,

May you take pity on my tender breast – an unbreaking bow bends,

In Fury-tossed waves, but only, for a private second.

***

The calf

Arrange breasts as plump scallops – shining fingers winding around Anatolian apples,

Honey-gold and poplar-firm. Thighs crossed as the blue and white Niles,

Lain as Aphrodite-Antheia on patiently-plucked olive leaves,

Golden-yellow in guiltily-washed and patiently-brushed Carpo’s lovely-shawls.

Autumn’s berries, pomegranates and quinces, ripe-sweet and as red as corals,

Hung in offering, a pretty penance for naughty blasphemers,

Laid at the feet of an patient emperor, pilot of oxen-ships,

Guider, of godless, yellow-bellies. Won over for poor children’s lovely-salvations.

Adorned daughters bloom breads, soil plump crops, find holes in iris- and aster-woven,

Scarves pinned together. Draped, to form sea plumes crashing along,

Pinkest-scallop shells and lightest-purple clams – bouncing curves, brightest shine.

Good sisters yarn trapping-nets, nimble-hands axe iron ore, butcher sheep, antelope,

And shining cows. Thickly-marbling fat and gently-coarse coats tear, sweetest song;

Heartiest dewlap and hock, blessed with bushel reddish-blonde cinnamon.

(Arrange fish carved of cedar in the centre of perky breasts – pine-green columns,

Raise pure glass-squares, colours blue, indigo, orange, plum, forming,

Curly-bearded, giant lion-pelted hero braiding nets,

Beneath, fixing, anchoring honey-yellow legs to a rocky-knoll hungered,

After by the shepherding-Ionian. Tide, heaven-swelling, heavy-breaking.)

Hide browning, atrophying olive leaves with gracefully-perched foot, swifts,

Black-bellied, and heaven-soaring, bright-warbling confidants, helping,

To feed, good mother and sisters, gentle, father and brothers and infantries.

            Swifts, struck, mute and icy, after, their strong-arms left for westward,

Departed, with hunting-spears drawn, honouring, his prideful-barbarian,

And his defeated-blaspheming captor, of sun, a tricker of justices.

            Re-tie delicately-pruned, delicately-sugared wreaths of mint, ginger and oleanders –

Sweetest fruits, and plumpest leaves and tendrils, cradled by cold, dry Auxos.

Punishment, avenging, centuries selfishness, briberies, covetousness, larcenies,

Gravest-cuts, salted with, betrayal, amputating our, compatriots,

Amiable ferrymen and market-greeters.

Healthiest adorned wives and daughters,

Ripest for peace – decreed-winners, decreed honest, and good justices,

Salvaged, fair crafts and precious lands. Conscripted, traitoring, brothers, in avenging –

Parted from ancestral shelters, idol-churches, lucky to cure, the broken.

Gracious-blessed, choice to be born pure, carrying,

An fairer generation, brighter-blood, strong-bones, shining,

Heathen-prophets, to return.

(Honey-yellow legs attend, wholly-dedicate, white bull’s,

Ripe-flanks, petting-calm, culling-soothed. Delicate-wrists hold,

Softest, gentlest, horns of gold of loaves-pure. Ginger-brown eyes,

Perked as seeing-calves, broad as guiltily-cleansed Attart and,

Aster- and iris-weaved girls, daughters.

Rode along silky-roads, paved with gems, and dawning, mountains,

Swaddled in furs, cardamom, cinnamon, lapis,

Peeled-bare, rose-bathed in warmest-milks. Plumpest, for siring.)

Lighten grey-steel eyes. Just as whitest-scallop marble, altar. Romans,

Adorned flower-garlanded Carpo’s spilt blood by chosen, hands;

Helping impoverished, souls’ rebirths; rearing only the finest, of crafts.

Batter quivering-bleat, spit-struck, wringed-bloody. You have the honour of envy,

Toiled for for generations, gracious-sisters, gentle-bowings,

Skinned to the bone, either hands or shoulders, iron-bending;

Awesome-fired in flame culled of an burning bush – first testing-blessing,

Rejoiced, and rewarded-for – or forged by red-clay soils,

Cradling-rain and silt-rich, as if heaven-blessed, before, the great-braided emperor’s parades.

Batter, fair-bite – humble-surrendered hooves, gut, soul of cage-rounded cattles,

Drench supine wreaths, and hanging-fruits with last, of prized, bottles of oil –

(An haruspex by thickly-coloured squares – baneful-crusaders; skinning, dutiful emperors’ fathers –

Gods celebrating brothers’ vanquish, swift, and uncalled,

Promised, and unprepared, in blood, nor ash, nor dry-airs,

Asking, you for kneeling, and grovelling, for merry-robed Carpo,

Saviour of summer-seeding, -towering, -ploughing people, drawing, yielding, gifting,

As an honour, to crowning-skies, and forgiving-land.)

Contort between thighs platter, yellow of Numidia, marble-cracked with bluestone.

***

The Rime of the Ancient Canary

Primped and peachy   Winifred

lay, a

blossoming      bud, and a midsummer’s day.

A pearl,

of light-speckled lustre           begging

to be

tossed amongst the wild-

flowers,           piles

of petals

with unbridled power,

With

not so much as an inkling,

of reason, -

in a wool-lined dressing-gown –

cream with details carefully-

stitched            and stained

faintly

by winter-roots            murky brown.

Sublime, a sugar cube

betwixt her thumbs,

looking for the

bite

of stalks not in season.

As Winifred

fingered

baskets-worth of flowers,

the birds began to nibble at

her freshly

flushed-flesh.

Though finches pecked and pinched her,

loons bit and blemished her,

pheasants snarled and struck her,

swans pierced, pummeled her            purple as violets,

the fleet speared and spoiled her.

Winifred cried out

not a sound.

Refused

to raise            the slightest

her palms.

(Perchance they would force a fistful in.)

She gleamed

with glee

feeling the       caress of petals which danced

upon her          freckled-cheeks,

fluttered

along her blushing-skin,

delighted her

nose with the richest scents.

Eventually the violent assembly,

exhausted by the maiden’s resilience,

gave back her jewels

and gifted their flowers,

careful

not to miss      stem nor          branch nor       leaf.

Some   scuttled into   the pond beside,

some    fled into the fruit-bearing trees,

some    shimmied through weeds        on their backside,

those villainous disappeared

into the horizon

with clamor and commotion.

In a sharp wince and exhale,

Winifred returned

to her path,

aware

not how many hours had passed.

Dashed

down

the trail, broke

through the coppice,

tangled thistles

and against heavy gales,

and felt her jewels still tautly there,

resting

neatly in her pocket.

Their coolness

a

relief

betwixt her thumbs.

She flitted

and fled,

as if she foresaw a fiendish bird up ahead,

awaiting to

torment some more.

To pummel her            gown-stitching sore.

But

no creature sat idly upon the skyline,

nor did her sense of fright linger.

Winifred’s alight

lungs made her swiftly-          paced

As she pondered         whether she was still

heavenly graced,

anyhow,

she would sometime

be forgiven

of her sins.

Winifred screamed,

“Mother!

“Were you worried in my absence?

Had you searched with fervent passion?”

“Please

don’t fret my gashes,

nor tend

nor cleanse

nor nurse my slashes.”

“For I have returned with bright floral remnants!

Of tulips and peonies, I have such a penchant!

How lovely, how sweet, how soft the lilies!

How pleasing the orchids and delightful the daisies!”

“At last I have frolicked in the fair-touch of flowers!

Not even

the pain which succeeded,

could

indeed

make me         cower!”

***

‘Shining blue of heaven’

In every marsh there is a scavenger,

with beak pock scarred – thick brine ravaging ooze

too vulnerable to leave their warm spongey cases –

snaking-dints valorizing skirmishes,

of claws tearing thick swirling fat and muscle

(unctuous prime-rib crystallized in iron and sweat)

over shoals of graceful-finned bluegills,

or of gutsy flanks ramming against steel hulls,

fishing-boats invading their watery paradise

where whipping tails and flashing-light pectorals,

force eggs to uncover a nest of themselves, to hatch.

To answer the scavenger, there put is a hunter,

granite claws five in number hooved in jet-black

fur sweat-mangled from stalking in their skin.

Tender pink paws snap twigs, just graze brine-logged grasses –

sharp-wince and peppered snout – slender shadows

from the trees until the water’s edge.

Ears rotate to find any whisper of shrinking turtle,

precocious moose or rabbit or insurging

crustacean – phantom prey with cavity nearby

(push come to shove buffet and ought to be plotted.)

Proud cattails swing bushy-heads gesturing to

little jewelled worlds fast-shimmering when poked.

Guileless turquoise houses the meeting-places:

salt rings off porous clay mounds and fractal-ling

milkweed, perfumed-air penetrates all.

Sulfuric-yellow crystals cling to the surface,

diffusing algae’s tender-breathing chloroplast

and semi-hardening humus threads

making the soil liveable for lacunae-

scraped, broad-leaved aqueous carbon-eaters and

scant-lunged nitrate-caressers, crawling,

burrowing, or barely-tasting photons, cracked

reddish over adaptation.

Crystals attracted to elliptic roiled metallic

water, coating smooth marble pebbles

as they roll shallow burials they don’t’ seen again.

Stomp-greyed grasses always lay the table,

formerly jade and marrow-perfumed,

scavenger looking to feast on caught fragile-shiners

and scratch coarse inches from waiting flank

as his nemesis exhales shallow

brandished teeth reflected in the surface;

spiny claws there to tickle

wakened-whiskers with drops water, for

pink paw to wink hind-sclerite’s yellow flesh –

envious of each other’s appetite and strike –

cleaner than the other’s and frighting to the bone –

and the turquoise face shines brighter up

to their marble eyes that are watching.