MEDITATION


Like Thais
commanded an opera
in offers of caresses
obliging a soul and body
of work, days and words
an eternal mistress
like Flaubert's desert saint
in immolation
of reaching out
for water in love's oasis
from a profane violation
and renouncement
of a captive daughter's world
born of romanticism
to a purple mirror's oblation
reaching in a hands-off
echo of hallucination.