Bear Skin
My beloved sleeps against the wet sod of the green earth,
His body bear-skinned and brightly taut,
Brimming with light like a star that does not flicker,
But brightens the dark plume of the black night.
The hands of my beloved spade the soil beneath my body,
Palely flushed petals between fingers of birch —
His longing is a labyrinth of contradictory desires,
Tunneling towards an imperishable root.