1:40 p.m.

           21 August

black hair black

cold marbled cheeks

thy lips o they stab me

thy distance o it hurts me here

where my belly knots up when I see you

and your brows and your eyes and

your ears

and slender strong arms

and slender hands

3:00 p.m.

22 August

quiet, now, content

like dragonfly asleep upon a leaf

on an afternoon pond

or perched atop a rare twig showing

above the water

quiet afternoon water shallow

amid the moss

I think of you

and am happy at your indifference.

I am content

what though my dreams

are as reflected leaves

shadowy, vague

upon an afternoon pond?

Even now I watch

one leaf

still green

plash upon the water

I do not ask, there is no use to ask,

where green dark shadows sink

at twilights’ coming.

I am content

with the reflected heights

of my sole afternoons

with only the wind upon the grass

upon dark shadowed waters

cold, yes

still, yes

and at peace

but still

there are the dragonflies

two now upon a leaf

coupled like two April skies.

air-wings a-quiver mightily with the wind

the same wind that the mosses heed not

or can not

I hear the cricket sing

O sad that leaf dreams

on an afternoon pond

could never hold a cricket-song

but must be dark and mute

while dragonflies

blue or red as April skies

Cavort like lightning upon the surface

Shaken by an afternoon wind

shaken to dumb darkness

yet quiet,

quiet and still

shadows breeding silent moss

and sunlight only showing

how so very dark it is

beneath afternoon waters.