Some Short Poems

[TheEgyptian]

All outward show of beauty
In time will blanch and fade;
But hers, for she is in heaven’s
Pomp and panoply arrayed;
Doubting all gods and powers
That fall under reason’s blade,
But for one act of creation
Nature alone could not have made.

* * * *

The empyrean disjoined,
Disclosing the very aspect
Of your form. Imposing equilibrium,
Leveling scales that rested
Between wings in repose.

Along the precise measure
Of your collinear collar bones,
Lunar phases delineated a solar
Calendar; pagan religions
Ascended and declined between
Your ribs and navel; primeval
Animals stalked the zodiac
Between your shoulder blades.

The cosmos itself jangled around your
Ankle, like an ornament, because
Your heels had known the
Consecrated blue of the empyrean.

* * * *

Mars & Venus

I

All flattery being futile
And squandered breath
On one already flattered by nature –
The stellar bull and ram
Chase the heavenly wheel,
Until the zodiac is loved asunder.

II

All that time concerns, haphazard,
The guileless heart withstands –
Two wands, parting waters,
Absolving exiled promised lands –
Flattering with unsubtle sight
Your impatient, phosphorescent hands.

* * * *

We were all of us without sin
When we offended time’s
Reproach. Eden singled out
A melody and the grass went
Faint as aging memory.

Solar gods streamed in her
Aureate, turning faces from
Cool, shadowed seas,
The brightness ringing out,
Stunning thought, arresting
Stillness, shaking the stalk.

The image returned, echoing,
Recapitulating itself
In the acute angle
Of brow meeting bridge,
Terminating at the cleft
Above the lips. That was
Someone else, you thought
You recognized, you were mistaken.
* * * *

Her smile travels fast-
New York, Rome, Calcutta,
The Malay Archipelago-
Whoosh! Your hat goes flying,
It’s like standing on a subway
Platform, rows of skirts doing
The Seven Year Itch. If you
Don’t believe me, see it for
Yourself! History has never
Known lips with such velocity.