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I.
Mane
from
all across the land it
came
mane
to
curl and slither and frizz
and signify
ourselves
in
graceful vines of
defiance
blue
jeans earrings flowery
american
mane
heavily
on Mark it
hung
a
mighty vampire's draping
black
cape
and
I had plenty of mane to
match
copper
fingers coiled up like a
cobra
last
came Jesse and her
headdress
spread
a
peacenik peahen's radiant
stain
indigenous
redwood
camouflage
california
mane
II.
Steel
string anthems flickered in
the
waves
driftwood
fires lifted ever
higher
a
totem of tribal rebellion
and
atonement
but
autumn came to hunt us down
by
night
even
as our shadows clung to
august
too
far from home to
pretend
we
sanctified the place, then
and
there
with
sweat and laughter and
beer
and
whatever else we could
find
for
there was no time for
perfection
hardly
enough for
embracing
III.
Geese
paddle through the twilight
air
leaping
from the cliffs like an
arrowhead
to
flap and honk into the
charcoal
distance
do
they hear our
songs?
shells
and tentacles tumble
upward
and
onto shore like bread
crumbs and orange
peels
sponged
up from the ocean
floor
hand
in hand, we jump a seaweed
rope
will
it be missed down
below?
wading
ankle deep in puddles of
moon
we
turn our backs to a
continent
to
see forever in a
moment
of
boundless unblemished
pacific
horizon
hello
out there?
hello?
whispering
from the
reefs
restless
mermaid
spirits
laden
with eons of crab, whale
and
albatross
tug
at our open
shirts
and
tease our bare, salty
legs
but
not a word will cross the
sea from
here
IV.
Sprawled
upon the surface of an
ocean
I
ride up and down like a
duckling
rocked
to sleep by her
waves
dissolved
into her
thighs
fluid
intuition spills through
arching
curves
flushed
with strokes of sunburnt
pigment sunken deep into
our
skin
hands
choking
wrists
now
rubbing together a genie's
lamp
now
straining as if to crush
our ribs into a single lung
--
air
we
drown in each other's
mouths
V.
daylight
daylight
breaking
foamy
Daylight
breaking
God
has
seen good in this day to
bend down gently upon his
knee
and
play in the
sand
with
giant sunbeam
hands
anointing
a sleepy earth with streams
of
color
pull
back the covers and pour
into me
a
sea of vast clear
blueness
widen
my waking eyes til they may
host
your
entire abounding
sky
in
but a single
gaze
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©
Shelley Harrison
www.shelleyharrison.com
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