Tropic Encounter

TROPIC ENCOUNTER
Off a verandah runway
We wafted to euphoria
On wine's, acacias' nectar

Through sweet hypnosis,
Movelty, coy smiles - a mystery
Enhanced by blithe uncdertainty;

Our smiles affirmed fresh questions,
Then tuned new swaying, swirling,
Now melting all cold purposes -
Two forms, one tide, one breeze.

Soft touch on satin, linen,
Crisp fashioopns hiding, hinting,
Soft rhythms cleaving;

Dance swinging inhto pirouette -
Your gown and petticoat as wave crests,
Clouds, suspending gravity -
Fresh beauty cleared;

Dance lifting into dress's falling,
Swathes beneath blooms' wholeness lying,
Bodies rising to depths' call.

The warm lagoon, us all embracing
Drew us through currents, eddies, wakes
To polyps' bower.

Love's lull, love's breeze, love's gale,
Love's lightning whirlpool
Made us into our element,
Made us monsoon abandonment;

Love's flotsam, now surviving
We forebore
To drown in high perfection,
But salvaged driftwood memories;
Salvaged ourselves
As sea-shells, coral flower-shapes
Happy shelved.

DAVID RUSSELL