Nymphal

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Nymphal

Following
upriver
Amazonian
Delphine women
forming
from the waves
with wet skin
and foamy hair

Pahn comes
to an island
where they leap
in and out
of the water
his guiding wife
hovering
in the ether behind
encouraging him
to pull a nymph
from the water
and hold her

Pahn expansively
halls
a pale
thin body
with incipient wings
over the sand
to a backwater

disrobing her
on the shore
palming
her humming-
bird breasts
watching
her piscine belly
in-curve
and swell

He turns around
his mouth welding
between her legs
his jaws
like a fish
fertilizing eggs
opening
and closing

drinking
the saliva
of the skin
fresh out of water

her torso
becomes
his wand…

…Pahn is kneeling by his wife
putting his nymph
in her hands
moving her palms
on his sheath

absorbing her laughter
as he spreads her
tips her up
like a glass
surrounding her thighs
with his arms
aspirating
her consonance
swallowing

her gender

tightening
together
like a knot

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Formica

.

In a wealthy house
in a quiet neighborhood
where everyone
is at work
or on vacation
Pahn is holding a woman
who awaits his hands

A friend is watching
uninvolved
commenting
occasionally
as Pahn lifts her

and bites her limbs
chewing her neck
swallowing her breasts

…

They go to another house

Her clothes
roll into strings
of Play-Dough
under Pahn’s hands

She is limp
and pliable

She lies across
a chrome-
edged table
from the past

her skin
and softness
a contrast spread
against the dark
cold
marbled Formica
that resembles
the night sky

He tries
to inoculate her
but slowly
the strength
and passion
dissipates
Pahn
turns her over in despair
hoping
for a remnant
confidence

but her body shrinks
becoming male
and immature
and he backs away…

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The Family

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…he goes back
to the wealthy house   because
he has left the door                  unlocked
and was supposed
                  to be taking care of it
                                   until the owners return

The door
is a confusion
of screens
and sliding glass

His key fits them all                                                 
                                                           but won’t lock any

He finds a dial
that has to be turned
to correspond
to the proper door

and as he tries his key again

an older eccentric
woman
walks up
and introduces herself

She doesn’t question                                               
                                                               what Pahn is doing
in these pre-dawn hours
but takes a more than friendly
                                                                      interest in him

She assumes command                                                                         

becoming
                                                            Lakhehsis

And they are soon joined
by Lukh and Theya
and Phthona

The older women                                                                                       
take the forty-pound roasts                                   
                        out of the refrigerator to warm to room temperature

while the others
                                                          check the yard

the lawn is patchy                                                 
from the drought
and riddled with mole-runs

Pahn
                                                               steps out to investigate
but when he turns around
he sees
that Uncle Lukh                                                                      
has already gotten the tiller
                                                             and plowed half the turf

Cousin Phthona is digging deeper                       
turning the soil                                                                                        
to a depth of two feet                                                                       

As Pahn tries to understand
                                                                  the electric sandbox
he realizes                                 that he has lost control

Hearing Phthona’s voice
                                                               assuring that everything
                                                                is being taken care of

Pahn decides it is no longer his problem

Leaving them
to their incomprehensible industry
he walks off
by the residential oaks
            and mixed begonias
            into the 
                           dissolving woods
                                        at the edge
                                                                     of their defined

                                                         image

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The Upper Canyon

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In the air
of the bed
beside
Daphnis

the deck
of the bridge
stretches
away

in sections
down
the valley
lying

on a map
of women
at work
curled

into
bends
of the river
its staircase

of even
dells
in suspension
igneous

minerals
cascading
under
trestle

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Bluebirds

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…in a carpeted
courtyard          juvenile
aviary
the birds
gliding or climbing
the walls
in clusters
like iridescent
monarchs          Daphnis
sits watching as
the blue chicks
leave
the nest box      hatched
wings unready
for flight
to the floor
floating
from light feathers
changed
to dense polymer
melting
into the rug
like Sticky-
Hands   “Daphnis”
says Pahn
“They are leaving
because the parents won’t
come   and
the parents won’t come as
long as you
sit
beneath the nest”
but
looking in
his irises Pahn
sees their color
and their bodies have
come in
through
his feet

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Traveling in the Desert

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La Purissima Conception

A curving walk
of decomposed granite

a dry mound
of xerophytic plants

out of the missions                      
      in the sixth decade               Owens Valley

out of his parent’s time              They drive
in the years after the war            in the hot speed
                                                             through the trough
they sit                                                 of the graben
                                                              into the Mojave
in the soft warmth                           like a finger
of the dry heat                                  following a line
the estivating plants                                   on a map        
 and inherited memories                      past a cave called Pilth
                                                               to a desert cafe
They could be                                           
a brother and sister                    He sits with Egairia
a husband and wife                      who is not quite herself
two stones                                     but more like Aiks
full of each other’s presence                       She asks him
                                  like this air                to speak to the waitress
     having a common history               and when he returns   
 or a common mind                his seat has been taken
 
                                                                           As the people move
                                                                     to make room
                                           mumbling
          that it’s as crowded
        as a bus
        Egairia says
in a quiet
sad voice
that she wants to leave

The waitress tells them
that if they want to be alone
they’ll have to go
into the desert
to a cliff
or a grotto


…


Shadow Valley

They pass through his tribe
of light friendly people
wearing headbands
and living with
the water
of the desert
trapped in their eyes

They pass through
his other tribe
(“Geronimo’s tribe”
says the waitress                                      A child
through the air)                                        Pahn walks barefoot
of dark                                                          through the mesquite
quiet strength                                                            to touch
hard and good looking                          Penelopeya’s Long dress
                                                             of dust
where a man                                                     and cloth
from the Bureau                                               faded
scolds the administrator                               and dry
for failing                                                         thick and layered—
to build a back wall                                     the body so protected
                                                                           as never to be felt
But the administrator                                as if it were winter
points out                              and he can only feel the hem
that he was not given                            as he turns away
adequate resources               
 
                               back toward the desert wilderness

And Pahn feels like he has                                              


killed someone                  
 
           The administrator knows his words
mean nothing
to the man
but knows also
how true they are

…


Hunter Mountain

Pahn’s desert is naked
its wind-blown skin
smooth with soil
holding its water inside
waiting for the one
who will go with it
into the horsts of rock—
the hidden springs
of the high pinyon

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Waterfall

At the end of the road

unpaved parking                          

                        safety tape

   construction fences             

Pahn and his family find their way                          

into the riparian forest                                                       

to the ruined resort                           

an arcing bridge                                               

of cottages 

undermined              

   and tilting               

in stages of decay              

    and demolition       

Trying the catwalk                                                           

Daphnis

unbalances the boards                       

  sending Pahn                         

   into the river                         

He emerges dry                                                

and walks back to town                       

In the old commercial district              

                         buildings dark  

                                                     blue            

                                                         green               

                                           brown

                            Piteuss drives by               

                                              parks     

                  Pahn walks up to her car        

                                              She gets out                            

                                  with her friend 

                    who is short

                              dark

                              thin

        looking out

                        from her curly hair

                                                    at Pahn

                                                                         with curiosity

                        Pahn wants to give                                   

                        some pleasant greeting              

                        of acknowledgement

     But she doesn’t look at him again                                              

   and doesn’t smile                                                               

and so                                                                                  

he doesn’t feel                                                  

invited                                                

to speak

Pahn follows them                                                   

not knowing why

  trying to think of a reason                                           

  noticing all the while                                                  

how the path                           

to the river       

   has changed 

since the last flood…           

…They are swimming now 

Pahn is distracted                                

                              away    from Piteuss and her friend

by a waterfall

Pahn walks back toward town                                          

       He looks at the falls on a map                                              

   He follows a road to a better view                                  

There are cars parked                                                           

on an island

He doesn’t understand                                                      

how they have crossed                                   

                          the narrow

                            channel

without getting stuck               

When he swims out to the island                                                

he finds they are all submerged

Approaching the side of the falls                                         

he looks back                          

          to see Aiks                

            in an open corridor of stone

                       

                        hanging herself

                                                                            by a thin string                                                 

Pahn starts to cry                                                                  

and tells her

She’s making a mistake                                   

                                 cuts her down                          

          takes the string

                                 off her neck

and holds her

  Then they walk                                               

along the rocks                        

at the base of the fall                                        

where the water finds its ways

through the crevices                               

and grooves    

among                                     

swathes of flowers                                      

and Aiks says                                      

                                                “They are pretty”                                                                                                                                     

       as if she has awakened                                               

to red petals                                                

from a grog                                           

       of her anxiety