FOR A DANCING BEAR

“Musical, insightful, Toni Levi’s collection is filled with poems of grace and offbeat
discernment. With joy, I salute the maturity and depth of her work.”–Colette Inez

The breath of sleepers
lifts and falls
like a cold white sea,
their sheets a palimpsest
for the dreams of those
who have uncoiled their bodies,
loved and died in these beds
before them.

Far off,
the sleepers wash ashore.
Beneath nightwinds,
their haunches shift like dunes,
limbs lose their way like driftwood.
From their mouths, the howl
of great furred animals,
smoke of ancient battle,
songs of longing,
scent of frangipani.