Ah! Nights

Ah! Nights you were a harem
and I the unmade Bedouin too long in the thirst.
Past the black eunuch of the night
I would steal to your tent,
unarmed save one single arrow in my quiver.
I'd draw sensuously back your damascene veil
and let fly my shaft 
deep into your bull’s-eye arabesque --

Or: you were queen of the hive
and I a drone among the honeys
getting a buzz on and doing my job
plunging among the dusky clover
trying to pollinate the skies
to flower the night with stars.
To lose my only stinger would be to die --

Or else you were madonna
awaiting your Jealous Commanding God, 
The Spawner Of The Cosmos,
Beam Of Light Made Flesh To Hold You In Your Place
(while you shook in rapture for the coming of your Lord,
i a small choirboy would steal into your unguarded churchyard
and send a solitary firework into the cathedral's secret hole
and hope it explodes high up in those beribbéd vaults
and surprise celibate fathers from their sleep). 

-- Duane Vorhees