Zeus to Juno

He—

You saw the way her body looked at me   

         all address

                     calling me down   

she was so

         well-turned,

                     curve and volume

her body presented itself—

         Clay—

                     I could mold it

She—

You were taboo   

not totem—

covered her   

though your wing gave no shelter

Your pale plumage   

became shadow   

Your beak caught   

in the net of her hair

He—

When I entered her

         her death became my life   

in her death swoon

         she fell away from me   

the more she fell

         the deeper I pursued her   

the deeper I went

         the more lost she became   

her body

         became a forest of echoes   

hills and valleys

         echoing each other, a language

I didn't know—

         surrounded: alone

She—

The discarded body   

lies in long grass   

Flies and wasps   

fumble there—

on a summer day   

the lost girl hums—

Kelly, Sarah, Joanne changed   

into parable

Prodigal hair   

flung out   

             body agape   

like a question

The scavenger crow knows—

she's beautiful,

outgrowing her name   

in the noon heat