Venus

Bleat!

The dank white “plash of the gull.

Its sleek stem stripped sleeker still than the petals of iodine / the long scan of the waves —

its bloom out-swelling the green wash of the sea.

Upon the ebb and in the spray of the bow I have seen her ride shelled in pearly rim / sleepless doldrums — Blushing with deceit and eloquence.

I have seen her in schools and in the stores /

in my youth and old age / upon the labyrinth of currents — Hair and features of wind and sun —

clothed this day in gulls wings

(white azaleas).