i watch you counting yourself out
courting little pets of body-parts
putting pennies on the trinket shelf
talking with wending wordage
about those gruff fellows
who've been pig-holing about your dwelling
that day you manage a back window
and escape
masquerade yourself as a gentleman
but they sniff at your aromas
these men in crude season
they circle you hinge-hipping
as you fleet the roads and fields
and evade into the dappling woods
"come on out we have you surrounded"
(you say they say)
you stay crossed legged a monk among trees
(these pleasing defenders)
you take off your dress and string it
from one of these trees
you dole yourself out
little pets for the undergrowth
you offer a curled shrew
from the space your kneecap once
occupied
you droop your warm left breast
and drop a beast from that cove
(a plump vole clambers fresh and
disorientated)
you plug one arm into loose soil
and the fingers snake root
separation at the elbow
and branches sprig out
both your thighs animate as fox cubs
your ***** leaves from between
and slinks under some ivy
your hair fiddles loose and travels off
in currents of breeze
before flitting into little finches
your back crumples with fungal looseness
your head weighs low
and the jaw lumps off
shuffling undecided on its form
your forehead bows to kiss the earth
and your face scatters a gaiety of insects and spores
all arts patterned about
your pile continues in this mattering manner
collapsing efficiently
you've canonized in nature
now you’re abroad mature and freed
to tell your friend this story
a spirit without brag of these neat powers
one with mother glory
ORIGINAL
i watch you counting yourself/putting pennies on the shelf/talking with wending/about those gruff fellows /who've been pig-holing about your dwelling/who circle you hinge-hipping /when you fleet the roads and fields/and INTO THE WOODS