Smoke ocean
and buttermilk sky  

illuminate the night.
Beacons  

swagger
in phantom shade.  

Underpopulated earth
of rock and flora  

rendered in green-gray;
a paradise teeming  

with socially engaged nudes,
and oversized fruit.  

Lady Godiva
feasts on cherries.  

In the high distance,
veiled creatures take flight.

Author of the poetry collection, Eve Heads Back, forthcoming from Kelsay Books (Oct 2020), and Eve Would Know (Kelsay Books, 2017), Joanne Leva is founder and Executive Director of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program (MCPL). Leva’s poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Peace is a Haiku Song (The Foundry Books), 50 Over Fifty (PS Books), Scripta, Apiary, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Rag Queen Periodical, Bucks County Writer, Transcendent Visions, among others. Go to www.joanneleva.com to learn more.