TAPESTRY WITH MAIDEN

My braids swim

With moat alligators

Who love such tinsel

Brushing their backs.

My beauty is mechanical,

A hairless clock or hairy

Cabinet. My mood purples

In a stable. None dare

Approach unless beastly,

Chaliced, jewel groined.

I am processioned by rats,

We walk into a country

Of men who eat live fish

And trees who sink

Into the soil at night.

Queen wants me look up

At her from the cloth.

Rather eat my own rag.

My mind is wet, I touch it.