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Circe and Her Lovers
all in abundance the poured black of panthers almost the bloom of damson when in sunlight the quivering fur shades her flesh also the alert courteousness of gazelles attendant always to her least wish as if the slightest sigh were a disturbance in the deep sand shoals of their eyes and the serpent mesmerized by some erotic spell of its own caressing endlessly caressing her unsandled foot a lizard slips over the drawn figures on her book the great bear a white grub near its paws watches her longingly a lion plays with her wand the nakedness of the woman haunch buttock tail ears they play their colors and moods touch taste scent gaze upon her autumnal ocelot wintery badger the quick and slow seasons of beasts few close to comatose watching with morose eyes as unseen and enduring the brand burns others lit to the fiery points of their pelts brush nervous by flank and knee or dance frenzied on their four footprints before her chameleon sorcery of color the taunt fineness of her skin almost the light green of grapes almost the same translucency at her breasts and elsewhere olive or cornelian or rose yellow and changing constantly changing cast shadow cast thoughts cast memories of these who were once other than this who might still be an owl blinking at her from his perch not caring that a mouse rubs his silken tufts to please her under the lobe of her ear a black goat licks her ring