such laughter the stained glass caught

some flowered sun shed its morning glory details
through the glass, reached for the paint-chipped casing,
shadow sticks framing a pressed willow flat hand
from the book I open and close and open and, close,

caught, cornered on a page I want to read, creased
the stained glass lather fountain in the margins,
laughter and mellow pause around the lake
from the eyes such wonderful eyes such speaking eyes

rub paper like dew-soaked embrace in the meadow
then, the parchment always dries as it should dry
on the knobbed grass flats beneath her perfect back
in the sweet velvet-petaled sun, the fearless asymmetry,

one divination, one, her grace, the passion, the blood-red heat
of a prism I can never escape anymore than the golden ellipses
that haunt me to love in my sleepless nights and long valleys,
she, beading down the tethered beat of my soul longing--

on the knobbed grass then, rub paper from my eyes,
such laughter on the page caught, cornered
in the book, shadows swept aside read aside
such laughter the stained glass caught, the flowered sun