qarrtsiluni

Wife Says Man “Not the Same” Since Return from Forest

by Lou Amyx

for John Wood, with apologies to Thomas Hardy

It’s true. For who could be
Called same that loved so free,
Keen, and wild as we upon that ridge in native wantonry?

Who would dare to claim
These dusky stars the same
As those which lustered bright at that convergence of our twain?

I was just a lumber-
Jack, off to fell a number
Of small saplings. Framed in shadows dappling, I remember . . .

Tho’ fearsome when we met, he
Soothed my dread and set me
High upon his mantlepiece — his prize; and he became my Yehti.

Joy was his task. Watch
My tender Sasquatch
Gently love my eyes and lips, neck and nips, belly, hips, ass, crotch.

Consummation comes;
My steaming vessel runs
Upon his iceburg; seas prolapse, and the black sky hums.

Fate has cracked the world
This titan valley, hurled
Us each to disparate peaks, then watched the lovesick plan unfurled.

Fate traced our course
Coincident — that coarse
First meeting. Glad melding. Grim cleaving. My enduring curse.

Dare not apprise of this
Beast the mere size of his
Shoes! Measure instead the insatiate sighs of His

Disconsolate Love
Who yearns here to prove —
I belong returned to him, and to that high mountain grove.

He read poetry to me
Beneath the oak tree
And the aspen. Now I miss him, and feel all things are parody.

Download the podcast (original music composed and performed by Joshua Amyx)

Poetry by Lou Amyx may be seen in The Arena, The Naugatuck River Review, Tidal Basin Review, at Melusine.com as the winner of the 2011 Vivienne Haigh-Wood Poetry Prize, and soon in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IV: Louisiana. A chapbook, The Bracelet, is available from Finishing Line Press. The recipient of creative writing MFA and English MA degrees, Lou teaches freshman writing classes at McNeese State University in Louisiana.