Biological Name for Moth

The scientist shudders
at the touch of
plumes and russet
dusty wings

thud against
a back lit window
the squash and gag
of a hunting cat

The Atlas Moth
gives me his
map and sextant

his heart glows green
beneath his t-shirt

spreads wide
his wings
red/yellow/brown

continents of wings
countries of wings
territories and states of wings

he allows himself
to be palmed

pinned
through his thorax

a swoosh of feelers
semaphores
his love

Coracle

woman and man carry
their boat on a dry
river bed swollen with earth

cargo of white
silk stained by glass bees
and vows that murmur
like door frames

encamped with a dumb moon
swung in the man’s billycan
held by the arc of his reach
he yearns

for the eager leaning
of her over the riverbank
torso criss-crossed by ripples
of water reflections that quicken him
and the nascent vision

of woman and ‘roo
lips simultaneously dip and raise
to discover each other
silvered by mirrored wet stillness

but in the furnace
of the journey she has become
dark glass with holes that stitch
her to a child

and her legs ache from nightmares
of sticky strong wrestles
with golden orb spiders

the man dreams of other fires
and birds caught in mist nets
they pump like small hearts in his hands