Life*

Yesterday evening
         as the sun was setting
the sky seared with red light
         thirty or more ducks
flying in that characteristic
          ragtag bobbing V-formation
heading home
         to Crayford Marshes

As Charles Olson puts it
         anger came after man
there is none in nature
         Nature is pure beauty
all life from the division
         from the exuberant
multiplication of single cells
         through the sharing
of cellular resources
         two for the price of one
literally each my other half
         and from this process
the rich complexity of the rose
         of the spider’s web
or the webbed feet
         of amphibians

so that always at the heart
         of all that is beautiful
an essential simplicity
          and so too I ache
for the kiss of her lips
         for the warm press
of her breast on mine
         for her sweet compliance
as I enter the openness
         of her kindred flesh
again and again
         so softly

John Lyons

*Revised from earlier posting