Elusive Animal

almonds I taste them
their olive hearts flecked
with gold fawn-green lights
soft as twilight's
darkly gleaming softness
of distance I glimpse his 
thoughts - burnt umber 
concealed in curls of
black lashes thick and close
black fronded almond
eyes diamond-paned and 
all predatory lemon
flashes with red pirouettes
ochre-hearted and bright tiny
lights flecked with gold jade
striped on a tiger's eye
mane of thick brown heavy
ringlet hair is weight in the
hand my amber lion is
lustrous and sweet-
smelling his bounce and jumbled
softness compelling and 
mysterious careful 
movement silence is primeval
contact a gaze through
thyme and maze through
one straight line eye-to-eye
an indrawn breath and I watch
his eyes burst in flames
smell my skin singe
almond gold I taste the
olive in him that rough dark
heart lion-red flecks of tough
softness wary but at play
his big cat strength all pelt
and sinew mouth to mouth with
a god whose eyes like lamps
burnish and throng the air
no Aslan this his hollowed skin is
diagnostic of delinquency
indifferent divinity how
does he poison my blood and
make me brood this wanderer's
nonchalance in jungle and
fern all easy streets and elegance
a burgundy waistcoat
of figured silk hand-made
precision shirt soft leather
jacket insolent about town this
rogue is lovable but mad bad and
dangerous to approach without
caution

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