Sonnet XLII: I Hunt For A Sign Of You

I hunt for a sign of you in all the others,

In the rapid undulant river of women,

Braids, shyly sinking eyes,

Light step that slices, sailing through the foam.

Suddenly I think I can make out your nails,

Oblong, quick, nieces of a cherry:

Then it's your hair that passes by, and I think

I see your image, a bonfire, burning in the water.

I searched, but no one else had your rhythms,

Your light, the shady day you brought from the forest;

Nobody had your tiny ears.

You are whole, exact, and everything you are is one,

And so I go along, with you I float along, loving

A wide Mississippi toward a feminine sea.