behold Beatrice, Pitcairn
the sunsets lie in paradise
sunrise, the folly of easter
islands, sanitoriums, deluded, denuded
limbos and purgatories, the never evermore
polynesian metaphors transmigrate my mind
o to graze with the deer, dear
the tree never falls silently
lizards scatter, birds scurry to flight
i could never buy into falling silence
let alone Galileo's descending weights
forgive me for being sententious dear
no pity for Cyrano
a failed Benedick in port
without Dante's delusions
Service, woman, a slightly tainted saint
Tennyson's wound that never heals
Petrarch, Augustine, it grows insane
ah the vicissitudes, where was i

your laughter starts in those ignescent eyes
ignition, brush fires of rippling ballerinas
facial muscles lost in abandonment
to some elfish music i see, never hear
lips widening, bursting rubaiyat pandemonium
i adore your infectious risibility
it is your amatory smile i love most
demure, candles gamboling in the moonlight
i am a moth lost in the flames
of your demanding timidity
it is then i see in your eyes
the dove gracing your hands
the beast who serves your lust
this is why the Norsemen
fear nothing but women
swords once ready, beserkers, Odin
now lie silent volcanoes in my heart, Freya
the seas are without headstones
and i am wondering again terricolous
all of this is the clouds overhead
it is the heavens i see in your eyes
not the red dawns i fear
we see the jungle, its' song, inevitable war
the struggle to stand in the light

possibly besotted, erratum
the seas have long not cared
with you, i learn, heal
we are undeniably humanity
we are paradise lost
the hells of yesterday
need not rule the heavens of today


         Miramar   94