Donald Hall
The Caryatid

Aphrodite of smooth long skin

      And tenderness,

She stepped from stone as from a dress

And stately as a mannequin.

 

They slept curling their bodies tight,

      One long caress

Of limbs turning in to press

Skin onto skin through the short night.

 

For months of sun and stoniness,

      Her modeled shape

Walked as a goddess in our landscape

That vanished of its own excess.

 
Found In Volume 31, No. 01
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Donald Hall
About the Author

Donald Hall has published numerous books of verse, including White Apples and the Taste of Stone (2006).  He lives on a farm in New Hampshire.