When an angel lights
she comes to land to dance
upon the beach at Udo
free of heaven.
Modest, she undoes her wings.
When a fisher walks the rocky waste
of pine leading to the beach at Udo
the night air is luminescent with the odor
of newly bitten apples,
the moon within an oyster shell
split open on the sky.
Stolen by strange beauty
he takes her folded wings
a beauty that does not become him,
that he has no mind for but the memory
of a heaven he has never seen.
Naked, she cannot fly,
bound to the beach at Udo
without her wings she weakens
falters, pales the luminescent air
loses the odor of apples
The scent of mushrooms fog the sky.
She begs him for her wings.
He refuses as she falters,
the spark of heaven dimming in her eyes.
Would you dance for me, he asks
I will give you back your wings
when you show me the grace
of a heaven I will never know.
I will, but first
give me back my wings.
I weaken and the grace you seek
fails me as I speak.
If I return your wings
you will fly away and I will never see
the grace that I will never see.
You are accustomed to deceit.
You expect the lie. But we
cannot say a thing that is not in our hearts.
We have that weakness and that gift.
So ashamed
he returned her wings.
The angel Amaotome
danced the phases of the moon,
there on the beach at Udo,
giving him a glimpse
of the heaven
he will never see.
