Painting by Rousseau

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.