poetry

AFTERNOON OF A SEA FAUN
by Edith L. Tiempo

Turn over the loose stones
And also know
The faces of what
We are not,
What we refuse to be.
These are as just as he
Who slips eyeglasses on,
Pondering on Ben Ezra,
And she who dips her aging hands
Into the silent clouds
Of incense.

Dark and fey, but alchemic
As quicksilver
The wood nymphs run,
Those spurned when she was twelve.
And he has quite forgot,
That, past the coral reefs, a sea faun
Dangles the bait and rod.

Still, we foster
The acquiescent shape
By our rejection,
Giving voice, blood, name
To the random breath;
Love is many and truth is just,
And so we are; Both
What we choose,
And we refuse.

back to poetry | home