This woman! how shall I describe her
who is wealthy in the riches
of her sex? No counterfeit, no mere
metal to be sure ---

yet, a treasury, a sort of lien upon
all property we list and transfer.
This woman has no need to play the market
or to do anything more than watch

the moon. For to her, thoughts are not
like those of a philosopher
or scientist, or clever playwright.
Her thoughts are to her

like fruit to the tree, the apple, the pear.
She thinks and thinks well, but
to different purpose than a man, and I
discover there a novel territory.

It is a world to make the world
little worth traveling by ship or air.
Moscow, Zanzibar, Aegean
Islands, the Crimea she surpasses

by that which by her very being she
would infer, a New World
welcome as to a sailor and habitable
so that I am willing to stay there.


 = Leon Branton