Leucothoe and Larch

ille ferox inmansuetusque precantem
tendentemque manus ad lumina Solis.... - Ovid, Metamorphoses IV.237-238

An exceedingly comely maid, and a most beautiful virgin,
and not known to man: and she went down to spring
and filled her pitcher and was coming back. - Gen. 24:16

Leucothoe, your sunny death is life
Espoused beneath a fragrant, lyric sky.
Ubiquitous yet bashful as your grief,
Clustered like tears, your blossoms modestly
Open, little by little drawing life,
Taken from heaven’s rain-swollen sky.
Happiness stems from the same green as grief,
Obliging doghobble to modesty
Even as it carpets summer with mountain
Larch – ruling forests with Homeric simile.
A promise green or dry, the larch archly
Recalls the servant come back to Haran
Chasing down a virgin whose water jars
Hold an eternity of sand and stars.