Pastiche

    These shell-queens, too,
    are blithely catpaws,
    shorn & musky acorns with
    indexed fingers erect
    at manicured attention.

    II
    ... Showboats with green faces far as swallows fly,
    a lilac in oasis ... scarlet bream
    ... blue ointment where the ocean is
    periwinkle patches,
    a robin's egg clarity pressed
    between blue-nosed tavern wall
    & bottles clinking.

    III
    See plush cords,
    the suede interior
    svelte & slinky
    an upholstery simonized
    with natural springs where
    bubbles encounter founts
    in apertures, the rich measure
    of open ground or mezzanine curtain
    slit along a riverine walk
    & jungle clearing.

    IV
    Twilight. Golden tulip. Golden olive,
    "Fool's Gold", a lithesome snake-girl
    gyrates her dragon-flared, limb-length
    tattoo with red-eye dots itching in
    emerald waiting; footpaths overhanging
    serpentine curves or laser beam
    dancer legs, paddle white, under angel
    tint of stage-light.

    V
    The cut off jeans
    compete with campfire glow ...
    slipping a musket-width, nostril breadth
    around turbans, bonnets, bubbles. Murex.

    VI
    ... Elegant white ibises and egrets
    stand like sentinels; herons flying in
    their wide wings braking and their long
    legs dragging ... and the snaky-necked
    anhingas flapping and sailing into
    spread their big wings
    to dry in the sun.

    Sa nom m'etruit

    Her NAME escapes me
    Nomen fuit



    Just the faintest hint of spring

    UU

    MM



    MOTHER of PEARL
    with ODALISQUE.