"Falaise de Lave"

she is skinned alive
by her own hemorrhaging
fires

and glows
like a raku kiln
at night

she knows no shame
wears a girl's kimono
of orange silk shot with pink

she dances too passionately
for one of her age
a fury of gas and rock

at dawn she powders
her molten wounds
with dustings of ash

and brushes her three
ink-dark breasts
against the paper sky

incarnated as steel-blue goddess
of the floating world
she reigns over clouds and waves

and performs
her mysterious choreography
daily

to the taiko pulse
the numinous throbbing
of her earthen body

BIO: Alison Pryer has taught in German and Japanese schools, as well as at the University of British Columbia. She recently completed a Ph.D. in Education, and also became a mother. Email: alisonpryer@yahoo.com