My First Bootstrap Page

Prologue

I

  Mother of Seth! Your lunar joy pervades
     All life: The courting firefly's flashed demand,
  The white moth skimming over fresh-mown blades
     Of park lawn, beyond which the wooded land
     Slopes steep;y east to river basin; and
         Moon-bathing on this evening of your full
     Exposure, I too am rejoicing, grand
         As Adam losing incorupttible
Flesh -- still a manly though a mortal animal.

II

  Were flawless gems, strange fruit born from the Tree
     Of Life Eternal. The thick-scaled bronze bark
  Of its gigantic trunk reminded me
     Of massive doors whose bold engravings mark
     The entrance to some sanctuary, dark-
         ly numinous to all save its high priest.
     But stronger than those that secured the Ark
         Of the Covenant were the plates of creased
Bronze, which protected from the most ferocious beast