Shadow dancer,
     Whose toes touch the underside of the earth,
     Whose ballerina-toned feet dance on flames,
     Whose eyes glance down to a burning darkness,
How bright shines the smile of her vampire teeth.
Neptune's daughter,
     Cousin of Plutus, who kidnapped Summer,
     Cousin to Death, in-law to his cyclic bride,
     Friend of the gods, lover of demons,
How soft feels the too-white skin of her face.
Cool and soft,
     For all the heat reverberating from her heart,
     For all the passion steaming off her dancing feet,
     For the fire of the brimstone below and the sun above,
Which are yet the same.
Footsteps touching
     Lightly across the surface of this planet,
     This once-blighted star reflecting light,
     Absorbing enough to begin life's dancing circle,
A feeble glow in the cosmic night.
She smiles mortality,
     As bees nest in the carcass of a rotting lion,
     Deer chew the grass fertilized by dead Eskimos,
     And parasitic flies slurp the live blood of the deer,
Rushing the cosmic circle by their haste.
She dances,
     Balanced on that narrow strand of becoming,
     That transitory moment separating hell from heaven,
     That narrow arch of regenerating life,
Exploding in the impure blaze of cosmic freedom.
 

9/9/83
 

Index     Cutting a Channel in the Sea