artemis III

fly free, words
with seizure
take shame
fire!

creep, leap
cravasse floors
where her arrows
dwell blind
and the hounds
he mastered an hour ago
nose the scent, cry
joydeath!

even now:
the yodelling hunt
the snap of tendon
the brusque resistance before
belly-tear and tumble

even now the man’s mind
housed in the stag
boy-grins gladness

now, and now
even now
branded to his white-walled eyes
the shadow seams of vigour
in the cream belief of her back
waist-deep
in water he would have breathed
and when she turned
hawking shots

and the skyblur
and the sundrum
and oh, oh, that golden clavicle!

autumn-eyed
she pronounced his fate
pelt-swathed
licked and sealed
sundered
done