Zeus to Juno Poem by Fiona Sampson

He—

You saw the way her body looked at me
all address
calling me down
she was so
well-turned,
curve and volume
her body presented itself—
Clay—
I could mold it


She—

You were taboo
not totem—
covered her
though your wing gave no shelter

Your pale plumage
became shadow
Your beak caught
in the net of her hair


He—

When I entered her
her death became my life
in her death swoon
she fell away from me
the more she fell
the deeper I pursued her
the deeper I went
the more lost she became
her body
became a forest of echoes
hills and valleys
echoing each other, a language
I didn't know—
surrounded: alone


She—

The discarded body
lies in long grass
Flies and wasps
fumble there—

on a summer day
the lost girl hums—
Kelly, Sarah, Joanne changed
into parable

Prodigal hair
flung out
body agape
like a question

The scavenger crow knows—
she's beautiful,
outgrowing her name
in the noon heat