The First Spring Nights

Orion down

the king, the pure rectangle, split

on the green spears of the fir!

and the spring stars coming sparser . Bu

White planetrees leap from the night's

thicket bodiless flames

reminding of bodies,

the first, untouched, and so danced

almost to wind, in the story

and the night still the largest body lion and virgin

woven near in the soft cloth

of new haze breath

fall of land so the aerating blood

runs out in despair, crying

for this alone I breathe

so that there is no way to be happy but knowing

one is too far in to measure

as when, in loving, your shoulder

turns to uneven meadow, brightening

with Queen Anne's Lace or your face

small and prim as a doll's

when seen from the other side of the

mountain of my yearning and angry hero.

I touched earth today. I follow

paths of wild onion down my longer arms

and, as I doze off, hum at you

four unconnected notes

the hope of the air.