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Wetting nude heels in the rushing field
     of cool clarity blushing its path
     over uncertain feet, bubbling streams
     flush out journeys using detergent
     squeezed from devious berries, opened
     prayerfully under a silent weight
     of fallen knees burdening lonely
     tributaries with gifts forests send
     to mendicants seeking after some
     sanctuary, searching worlds for one
     to call clean, a cleansing redeemer
     sent out for eternity to bend
     out of crestfallen soles new seasons
     of forgotten patina coal spent
     soullessly, blackened toes emerge cleansed.

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At the foot of Integrity filth
     kneels, wading redolently as silk
     whispers kissed in benediction on
     to heretic flesh, screen prints pressed wet
     on true religion, begging to get
     closer to her ocean of æther
     where painters and beggars beseech her
     alike, immersing themselves in her
     wondrous light, baptizing other halves
     of their chosen paths in vocations
     others condemn yet Integrity
     condones, calling home to her swollen
     pool, all eremitical victims
     of the old school, healing mortal wounds
     with a new way to soul’s renewal.

                  ≈

I taste acceptance freed of all its
     conditions, my tongue picking blushes
     of love’s savage cherries from between
     her platinum toes, crimson licks leaked
     like panther prowls into bed sheet throes
     no other passion so secretly
     knows, living out my own candid truth
     bestowed dangerously below her
     galaxy’s belt, suggestive of what
     I’ve long wanted to taste but wouldn’t,
     inhibition loosed and liberty’s
     congregation of unbelievers
     forced to choose from among fading stars
     one bright enough whose love saves the day,
     a sun whose brilliance won’t walk away.