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.