2 Samuel, 18:6-15
Once again you have entered it. The path
is thick with roses of an urgent red, like lips.
Within, you smell the strong scent of the trees like a body’s
and you have tasted its ripe fruit.
You are not alone, and you go in further
paying no heed, however, to the twisting movements
of the oaks which warn you of the branch
which will finally catch in your hair
and you will be caught like Absalom –
between heaven and earth
hanging by your head but moving your legs –
in your death throes once again,
in the shade grown yet more lonely.