(katabasis)

what is this ache (used, like water or a ******)
touch me, i tell the serpent. i came all this way.

leda and the swan.
(for rita dove)

well, ****.

she always liked the birds. that’s why she was in the garden… birdwatching… and there were lots of them... not just the swans- with their… long necks… their milk white bodies… the woman strains- she is squatting over a hole in the ground, lined with grass and hair clippings. she is to… have eggs. the first one slides from her with a pop under the protrusion of her *****, and she screams… a blue light flashes through the heavens… the second egg comes easy… the woman is proud, but she is wary… and yeah, she heard the stories. and yeah, when her fingers… closed around that neck… she knew what was happening. what happened. the swan was not a swan. the garden was not her garden. i can make you like me, he said. but let us start with this… and then he… gave her the children… the woman curls slick thighs over her womannest and falls asleep.

dreams of feathers and wings.