12gauge.com 2002

Jonah's Pungent Honeymoon on Maui

I mark the origin of Joppa honeymoon
by beating hearts and long pony gait--
pasteurized after calm, my filly lay
needing care, a foamy lathered clump.

Veronica combs minnows out with chrysoprase;
I dig a cantalope, read Hesiod's Works and Days.
Didn't Botticelli, too, put away wet? rode women
to the sea-- dry emergence from clams notwith-
standing, nor the master's brush-stroke grace.

Physical bridle, her literality, can be faced--
bathe pre-dawn, soak in Maui's Paphian sea.
Didn't Dido pass down her goopy, gentle hand,
soap her smelly fins, dry and powder-- too late!

Aeneas had sailed away.

Yet, I mock ravens-- I intimate ravens mating,
caulking through their beaks-- Crow, Crow
the Romans jibe, cast lots and find me out.
I admit attraction, agree to swallow by gristled
whale-- if only ambergris button glistens its jaw.

Honeymoon tails are told periodic and saurian;
follow my wish-- wash beneath that place timed
to Pacific moons rising leisure though the trees.
From our balcony over paradise a hag poses,
leaps off, rides her tattle-stick through the air,
scares maids perambulating lawns with babes.

Soon returns, brings me cherries homogenized
in cream, plays pussy-foot out her bridel gown--
spreads her knees, shows a potted laurelrose,
before me sets a Ninevah plate, poi in Lahina.

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