The Snake That Dances

How I love to watch, dear indolence,     like a bright shimmer,     of fabric, the skin of your elegant     body glimmer!     Over the bitter-tasting perfume,     the depths of your hair,     odorous, restless spume,     blue, and brown, waves, there,     like a vessel that stirs, awake     when dawn winds rise,     my dreaming soul sets sail     for those distant skies.     Your eyes where nothings revealed     either acrid or sweet,     are two cold jewels where steel     and gold both meet.     Seeing your rhythmic advance,     your fine abandon,     one might speak of a snake that danced     at the end of the branch its on.     Under its burden of languidness,     your heads child-like slant,     rocks with weak listlessness     like a young elephants,     and your body heels and stretches     like some trim vessel     that rocking from side to side, plunges     its yards in the swell.     As when the groaning glaciers thaw     fills the flowing stream,     so when your mouths juices pour     to the tip of your teeth,     I fancy Im drinking overpowering, bitter,     Bohemian wine,     that over my heart will scatter     its stars, a liquid sky!