Bandage covers right side
from ear to bottom of jaw—
a sharp angled line as 
where creek meets cattail
& cardinal flower, where
winter branch meets azure,
where rock meets rock.  

And yet it is the left side
that fascinates me, or over
green-coat shoulder-pasture,
past the face so like a cliff. 

Geishas in a valley, women
dressed in scarlet & sapphire
waving a fan so pearl it knocks
out sun until only outlines remain—
sleek stygian hair, cherry blossom
tree elbows, pyramid-mountain
distant & dreaming.