Nude Picnic

Such a dazzling autumn day, the trees in shabby garments
Someone’s gaze is frozen so he perspires grossly
Only light can prance as freely as a horse

Little sister strolls in the water, I bathe on the shore
Someone extends his arm, a snake’s protruding tongue
The straw mat covered in spilled apples and virtue

Lustful paint fixes stacked legs as gymnastics or dance
And autumn leaves spread wide the forgiving wilderness
Providing cover for a thousand suspicious leopards.

Countless keys slide into greased keyholes
How many times have men’s eyes, bourgeoisie-genteel,
Relieved little sister and me of our coats?

Sister is always a rain-slick snail, glistening throughout with fragile light
While I, before her prince, brandish a cactus, a length of silk,
Haggling over the rate and number of his infidelities

But in this bright countryside, my body is her chamber
And the balloon of thought grows ever vaster
Absorbing ever more oxygen, desire, torment, hatred

Oh sister, in this whole universe
No living things are talked about more than we
And here amidst nature, I the poet have taken pains to keep matters brief