Painting by Rousseau

Ray Smith

All the June blue afternoon
one small assiduous bird snips time away
while green fires flicker on full leaves:
dark roots, dark trunk, fringe of bright intellect.
Here on the barbarous edge of summer
insects simmer in their monotone,
mind's drenched by breaking flares of green.
An utter tiger's at the summer's heart
whose eyes amoral from its foliage shine.
Fringe of mind waves over rooted twining
darkness, rides an undercurving will.