Peter Redgrove
six odes
VI. coming-lady
She comes like a seashell without a skin,
She comes like warm mud that moves in sections.
She comes with long legs like a tree-frog clambering
towards some great fruit, niddip, niddip.
A small acrobat lives inside her flower;
The canopy blooms.
She has an underground belfry tolling the bushes
Which shakes the ground,
It is full of shivering bats that fly out and return.
Her blouse comes off like the clean paging of new books,
There is a smell of fresh bread and a clean active
Strong-teated animal inside.
Her knickers come off like opening party invitations,
And between her legs pigeons are laying eggs without shells.
I have lost dread there longer than a man reasonably may,
I believe I know there white lids sledding over mossy wells,
Shearing prisms and silk splitting for me to walk
Into the red room in order to inspect the ancient portraits
In warm loose oils that are always repainting themselves.
Page(s) 50-51
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