The implications of your bones

I'm with Sue and her family in Yachats, OR for their annual family reunion.

August Night

Shadow like a liquid lies
in your body’s hollows
In your eyes garnet stars
shift their facets with your breath
The August night is Nubian
something green mixed with the dark
a powder for your skin that tints
the implications of your bones
with copper light
an aura round your knees your navel
a little pool with pulsing tide

Is there beauty deeper than your cool
form drawn by the occult stylus
of this night
slanting to autumn
the long dawn soon bringing wrappings
for your breast?
Has any other watchman stiller stayed
to the smiting of this gong
half in glory half afraid to look
at what obscure in light
is now explained by shade?

--May Swenson.