Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days

The poem

She gives him his eyes, she found them Among some rubble, among some beetles

He gives her her skin He just seemed to pull it down out of the air and lay it over her She weeps with fearfulness and astonishment

She has found his hands for him, and fitted them freshly at the wrists They are amazed at themselves, they go feeling all over her

He has assembled her spine, he cleaned each piece carefully And sets them in perfect order A superhuman puzzle but he is inspired She leans back twisting this way and that, using it and laughing Incredulous

Now she has brought his feet, she is connecting them So that his whole body lights up

And he has fashioned her new hips With all fittings complete and with newly wound coils, all shiningly oiled He is polishing every part, he himself can hardly believe it

They keep taking each other to the sun, they find they can easily To test each new thing at each new step

And now she smoothes over him the plates of his skull So that the joints are invisible

And now he connects her throat, her breasts and the pit of her stomach With a single wire

She gives him his teeth, tying the the roots to the centrepin of his body

He sets the little circlets on her fingertips

She stiches his body here and there with steely purple silk

He oils the delicate cogs of her mouth

She inlays with deep cut scrolls the nape of his neck

He sinks into place the inside of her thighs

So, gasping with joy, with cries of wonderment Like two gods of mud Sprawling in the dirt, but with infinite care They bring each other to perfection.