Vague and Scattered Betrothals

Pahn is standing with a woman 

Her legs show beneath

her tan leather dress     the color

                              of a leaf

                          on the forest floor 

She is friendly

                              and amorous…

…they are lying in the bed on the floor of her room…

…She is kneeling over him 

He feels her warmth               

and dampness                                      

as she eases herself                                         

down onto him                                                         

He feels the faint buzzing                                       

as he flexes              

and relaxes                           

               He feels his body open

  

    from his thighs              

              to his chest     His heart

             lies motionless in his throat

                                                         and he swells

with air           his sex in a knot

                                              rising

  He tells her             

                 that he may be

                                                      more successful on top

                                           and is thinking

                 of kneeling behind her

                but rolls over

                                                 with her instead    and pushes

       between her legs

                                       a few times

                                                               and bursts

As he lies on top

of her lifting

the blanket with his back

and slowly

sliding over by her side                     he struggles

 to remember her name—Sekwia

                                         Esentia

                                             Sukaya

Sequaya

though he would pronounce it as Sequoia

He has become sure

and the name

                    sticks in his mind…

…He walks around thinking of Sequaya…

…Sequaya is

                     pregnant

with Pahn’s child         and he wants

to marry her

                                   but he is not sure if he may 

He vaguely thinks

that he might already

                     be married

or that he is betrothed

to someone else—   

there is             

                  someone else in his mind

                             that he could marry instead…

…He is walking

on a flooded street

as he worries

that he may not be able

to properly support

Sequaya’s child

and another family as well 

Across the street he sees

a small pear tree

turning yellow and scarlet

from the autumn cold                

 He thinks it is a good tree for

his coming marriage    because

 it has stayed small

 and it is very pretty 

He remembers though

that in other places

with more fertile soil

it can grow quite large—

too large for a small yard 

He thinks he may need

a bigger

more ragged woman…

…he is standing on a road by a creek looking at the erosion 

that occurred while the water was high

wondering why they have not

put cobbles or boulders in the vulnerable places

to keep the soil from washing out

Marriages

                     and proposals

leaves             

                                 and stems

Dimphna                      

flits

                  flying

Eithnia

                fades into

the covers       into

the trees

                                                   a scattering

of betrothals                          

comes

                                in the rain

a landscape

                       of potential love

unsecured affections

                             gathering

                                                to hover around

Pahn overwhelmed                        

By his high water