A cloudless sky where seabirds wheel,
a castanet, the crack of heel,
a note sustained on strings of steel;
the lovers stir the noonday dust,
her red, his black - their honeyed lust.

As music rises, mantis arms
with wings of shawl and silver charms,
entwine like vines and dance disarms
in strut and draw; each moment snakes
'til bodies brush and thunder breaks.

His torso twists in arch and swerve,
her back exposed, each sinew, nerve
in climax, then the downward curve
of afterglow; the ebb from swell
which ripples, like the distant bell.

Their passion drifts upon the breeze
beyond the rows of olive trees,
by white-washed walls and sleeping seas.