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