Omen

A kestrel lights
on an extravagant branch,
tilts its head,
then launches skyward
before you’re sure
it’s a hawk.

As if to say,
death will not
ignore you.

***

Etching

She scratches three
imaginary lines
on equally imaginary glass.

You are here, she says,
pointing her diamond
as if it were a gun.

Now, draw a map
you can call your own
without any places.

***

Bible Story on a Theme from Rimbaud

Un couple de jeunesse s’isole sur larche
A young couple moves away from others on the ark..
                         —Arthur Rimbaud
                             Illuminations, Motion

Dark in the empty grain hold.
No animal smell but their own.
He feeds her an ear of wheat.

She kisses it back to quiet him.
No names are spoken but each
remove the other’s simple clothes.

She feels him grow. He sees
green light about her. They do
what they’ve seen the animals do.

She leaves first, dusting her back.
He tidies the straw. They’ll never know

whose spouse they’ve just enjoyed.

Image via  Pixabay by David Boardman