The Woods

[evieshka]

a twilight mist has crept over the woods
and seeing them blue-shadowed and inviting me in,
i think i understand both verdigris and seduction

oh, those woods define lush -
like a woman self-satisfied
made lazy as a cat in the heat
big-breasted and full-hipped,
not posing for those looking on, subverting the human gaze
by relaxing in a bent-legged sprawl, stomach unclenched
eyelids heavy as the sunset
hands trailing the terrain

see, she's stretching her tree trunk arms and fanning her viney hair.

sprawling there is a land curvaceous with mountains and valleys
lusty, obscenely lusty, laughing at its own private
secret thoughts
dewey and beckoning
covered in dusk like a satin sheet
when the world is awake but starting to dream its post-coital dreams
after the work is done, after the food has been eaten,
after the sun has come
and gone

as it does

this is summer, a roiling, steaming summer
the earth laying panting from the touch of thunderstorms
sweating and contented

wholly herself, her own again

and i think we must be mistaken to believe
the world is bountiful during the harvest

women are more than what they give up to men