women are valued for their beauty

women are valued for their beauty
men for the shadow cast by long eyelashes
and poets because in the word
they conceal the swarm of willow-green sensations
at night - oblong from the moon's slim knees
they come up the very white hill run riot with light
kneel over the dead bird of silence
whispering prayers swollen with tropical pain
above them across from the rigid moon
mosquitoes of fear keep buzzing with their translucent wings
and afterwards it rains - and homeward go poets
hiding the fledgling words - under rainsoaked coats