Purdah

Jade—–

Stone of the side,

The agonized

Side of green Adam, I

Smile, cross-legged,

Enigmatical,

Shifting my clarities.

So valuable.

How the sun polishes this shoulder!

And should

The moon, my

Indefatigable cousin

Rise, with her cancerous pallors,

Dragging trees—–

Little bushy polyps,

Little nets,

My visibilities hide.

I gleam like a mirror.

At this facet the bridegroom arrives,

Lord of the mirrors.

It is himself he guides

In among these silk

Screens, these rustling appurtenances.

I breathe, and the mouth

Veil stirs its curtain.

My eye

Veil is

A concatenation of rainbows.

I am his.

Even in his

Absence, I

Revolve in my

Sheath of impossibles,

Priceless and quiet

Among these parakeets, macaws.

O chatterers

Attendants of the eyelash!

I shall unloose

One feather, like the peacock.

Attendants of the lip!

I shall unloose

One note

Shattering

The chandelier

Of air that all day plies

Its crystals,

A million ignorants.

Attendants!

Attendants!

And at his next step

I shall unloose

I shall unloose—–

From the small jeweled

Doll he guards like a heart—–

The lioness,

The shriek in the bath,

The cloak of holes.