Cast-off sandals
become grave markers stamping
the last place her feet
touched earth.

A seagull glides
past an eye carved
out of the glare, an opaline sun
that has seen her slip
through tongs of light --

ocean-sprinkled and arching
a female shape
against an abdomen
of pale marble.The sky

absorbs her life, leaving
a book on the sand
to tell his name, The Body Thief,
and a leather bag shining

black as midnight
in a courtyard where
he was once a god

fanned by poplar trees,
prayed to by a girl
whose virgin hair rippled
the darkness with firelight.