(a companion-piece to my poem "Slight Effort")

* * * * * * *

A good girl free from sin may roam
wild as a deer ’mong moldy stones
and fear not the corpse’s clammy clutch
bursting through the moistened muck--

Why, just as I approached the car
intent to fetch the camera
there lurched, then froze, some furry creature--
possum, rat, mole, hedgehog, beaver--

A ginormous thing! Then it unfroze
and dropped down, instant, by its nose
into the narrow welcome gutter
too swiftly, even, for the shutter!

Well, Godspeed, thou muddy stranger!
You are, indeed, some fearless ranger
to nest in the heart of a cemetery--
can you dream, serene, in shadows scary?

This wild season, the air that braces
this sunny dome, with milky traces
of high thin cloud, it won’t persist,
and soon sets on the frozen mist.

This heart of mine-- it’s flush with spring,
and, like the sparrow on gay wing
it curls and bounds through limpid air
pulsed by bliss, its breast borne bare.

I loose a button on my sweater
(desire inclines to defy all weather!),
and if, in secret, I shave my fur
soon, dear creature, it’d make you burr

To follow my lead! No, you must keep
your follicles full of bristles that sweep
the frosty paths where, soon, you must tread:
for I’ll have Irina to warm up my bed!

Cuddled in quilts, bodies bare but for socks,
her clothes on my floor (purple patent Docs
glistening at the first crack of day),
eyes drowsed, air chilled, mouths warm, hands at play.

But now we part our peaceful way,
and to merry Irina’s side I’ll stray,
to take our pictures and share our songs,
with chatter charmed from her steel-studded tongue.