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Couple, Reviewed
Look at them, the shameless pair of gropers,
kissing with wild abandon in front of
the small grotto in stone that nature has carved;
shielded on three sides by thick trees and tall vines
(keeping all but the most determinedly inquisitive
from disturbing with malice aforethought),
and on its south side a slightly sloped bank
leads a few steps down to the most minor
branch of Splashing Creek. And they continue on,
without the least concern for propriety.
Clad in tie-died tee shirts and cargo pants
(with those now unfashionable bell bottoms),
they abandoned their shoes quite a way back
(that is how I knew to find them here),
and then, arriving, took off their soil-grimed socks.
Look at that! Look at how their tongues touch
and then flutter before their lips lock again.
By the local standards of decency,
his hair with all those girlish ringlets or curls,
is far too long and needs a barber's skill.
That fragrance?---they have a small incense burner,
a kind of miniature thurible (ha!,
you did not suspect I should know such words),
smoking from one of several shelves within
the grotto; small, natural formations.
The incense is said to be an ancient,
ecclesiatical blend that once scented
the Christians' catacombs beneath old Rome.
The Poet?---he is out of town right now.
I have kept his house, and an eye on his
property for a couple of decades.
He ordered me to give these two gropers
unimpeded access to the grotto,
but I have not been told that surveillance
is restricted. Yes, I will concede that
they are both beautiful, but does that excuse
their shameless behavior, and the allure
with which she has led him to kiss her toes,
soles and high arches with the same ardor
he had for her lips just moments ago?
Is her lips and throat insufficent for
his desires, but now he now he needs to seek her feet?
I do not know for sure what his name is;
but she is called Fawn, so I have been told.
They must be drama majors: the poet
has chosen them both for leading roles
in his next play, which will have its world premiere
at the college theater. No I have
not read it---something about some English king
and his beloved Lady; that sort of play.
I have to wonder what the Poet was thinking
when he chose those two gropers for his cast.
Starward
