Face LIft

--from an Ojibway legend

She tied to one ear a string of basswood bark,
and, passing it behind her silver hair,
drew it taut and looped the other ear
to stretch the skin so smooth that in the dark
around her wigwam fire her charms --
an unlined cheek combined with (something rare
in mere girls) a gift for stories, lusty fare --
seduced a hard young man into her arms.

He rose beneath her practiced hands and reach
of words like smoke drawn to the open mouth
in her arched bark ceiling, shivering like a beech
tipping every leaf to face the south.
And when the basswood binding broke mid-kiss,
in the lines of her face read the map of bliss.






Originally published in Measure: An Annual Review of Formal Poetry, 2006.