Working Model for Three Piece No 3: Vertebrae
(Feeling Henry Moore)

I feel compelled to touch,
find some spot Underneath a curve where no hand
has touched, no hand not even yours when the bronze had cooled
and you luxuriated with all your hands
over the whole bodies of this piece.
There is a feeling of sheep grazing
in the pastures of New Jerusalem,
fields of quiet laughing green:
A feeling like I could sink my hands
into the sheep's thick but half grown pile,
place my hand on the flat of its skull,
its eyes dreaming up at me:
A feeling about your bronze I cannot resist
so take one last furtive touch
when the guard is turned,
and leave my salt etching away
at the meadow.