Theirs is that special condition of plenty
available only to those with nothing
on or between them. Its as if theyd been
out in the downpour, bodies wet as
thatbut theyve stayed in all day. Again
he studies her nape, fingertip-tests her hip.
He thinks her very young. Eighteen. Hes twenty.
II. Basement Lab
The entomologist drops into a pool of light to peer
at the magnified maxillae of a rare beetle
while something lackluster raps the dusty pane
above her head, a passing fluster of drops
hardly worth speaking of as rain;
she bagged this firebrand, Pyrophorus ignitus,
on a slope that catches two hundred inches a year.
III. Rectory Study
A working dr ...
This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 25 September 2006, on page 30
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