HER tawny eyes are onyx of
thoughtlessness,
Hardened they are like gems in ancient modesty;
Yea, and her mouth’s prudent
and crude caress
Means even less than her many words to me.
Though her kiss betrays me also
this, this only
Consolation, that in her lips her blood at climax
clips
Two wild, dumb paws in anguish on the
lonely
Fruit of my
heart, ere down, rebuked, it slips.
I know from her hardened lips that
still her heart is
Hungry for me, yet if I put my hand in her breast
She puts me away, like a
saleswoman whose mart is
Endangered by the pilferer on his
quest.
But her hands are still the woman,
the large, strong
hands
Heavier than mine, yet like leverets caught
in
steel
When I hold them; my still soul
understands
Their
dumb confession of what her sort must
feel.
For never her hands come nigh me but
they lift
Like heavy
birds from the morning stubble, to
settle
Upon me like sleeping birds,
like birds that shift
Uneasily in their sleep, disturbing my
mettle.
How caressingly she lays her hand on
my knee,
How
strangely she tries to disown it, as it sinks
In my flesh and bone and
forages into me,
How
it stirs like a subtle stoat, whatever she
thinks!
And often I see her clench her
fingers tight
And
thrust her fists suppressed in the folds of her
skirt;
And sometimes, how she grasps her arms with
her
bright
Big hands, as if surely her arms did
hurt.
And I have seen her stand all
unaware
Pressing her
spread hands over her breasts, as she
Would crush their mounds on her heart, to kill
in
there
The pain that is her simple ache for
me.
Her strong hands take my part, the
part of a man
To
her; she crushes them into her bosom deep
Where I should lie, and with
her own strong
span
Closes her arms, that should fold me in
sleep.
Ah, and she puts her hands upon the
wall,
Presses them
there, and kisses her bright hands,
Then lets her black hair loose, the darkness
fall
About her from
her maiden-folded bands.
And sits in her own dark night of
her bitter hair
Dreaming — God knows of what, for to me she’s
the
same
Betrothed young
lady who loves me, and takes care
Of her womanly virtue and of my good
name.