From her ribs and from the hair of women

Seen swimming sun-warmed rivers in summer's light,

From untroubled brows and eyes clear and driven

Gazing out from tower windows when falls the night

From hands cupped round pipe bowls alabaster carved

When veiled invitations coy as blossoms under shade

Invite a virgin's dance a rose-dappled love so starved

Where seen a coarse matron not yet ready to fade

And the tall bones of legs 'neath rounded vessels perched

Swaying lusty as a tropical storm above white coral sands

Where in all these gathered recollections I have searched

To fashion this love anew from soil worked well by my hands

And into the bower garland-woven petals fluttering down

Hovers the newfound woman's familiar unknown face

For on this earth no solitude is welcomed when found

And she who is gone must be in turn be replaced

And by the look in her eye I am a composite man

Assembled alike from stone, twig and stirred sediments

Lovers lost and all those who might have been

We neither should rail nor stoke searing resentments

For all the rivers this world over do flow in but one

Direction

Love of the Broken

Breneth