Emerging

What labyrinthine caves of flesh and blood
lead to the power of that female smile,
a bow that only callow youth can wield
on bloody battle fields of life and love.

The timid glance but growing confidence
of secret joys projected from within
fall suddenly like blossoms in the spring
raining down upon unsuspecting hearts.

Keen arrows pierce the ageing predator
and sting alive forgotten memories
of love stumbling helpless among the thorns
following then fleeing the longed for prey.

The mask of beauty briefly donned and then
replaced by irresistible desires,
the mouth pulled down with each sore panting breath
and urgent cries of love’s insistent song

Riding on the breeze the new butterfly
flashes ephemeral beauty on the world
knowing nothing of its brief span of life
it seeks out the perfumed path of its fate.

And so the woman child smiles at the world
not knowing the force of her fateful glance
so careless of the fires she may ignite
in sun parched hearts it falls across by chance.