Coveting thy neighbor's wife
Is delightful as an abstract
Preoccupation:
Imagining splendid dark hair,
Trailing long,
Shaken forward like willow branches,
Narrow and dark against the pale green
Of a drying summer hayfield,
The dash of deep green
In the bog beside the tree
Appearing all just shade and shadow.

The absence of young and interested
Neighbors
Serves to improve the avocation:
Forbidden fruit entices many,
But ephemeral fruit is manna,
The gift of the gods
Unmarred by earthly handling,
Self-renewing as the grass in spring,
The warming sun and cooling shade combined
Where past and future live,
Eternally,
Divorced from all that breeds and dies.

4/26/00
 

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