at first your great Halo of aureate- brown curls distracted me

It was at first your great
Halo of aureate-
brown curls distracted me.
And it was a distraction
Not from the hard-filled lean
Body that I desired
But from the true direction
Your face took, what it could mean,
Though it was there to see.

When you, that second day,
Drew back the shower curtain,
Another man stood there,
His drowned hair lay
Chastened and flattened down,
And I saw then for certain
How Blackfoot Indian bone
Persisting in the cheek,
The forehead, nape, and crown,
Had underlain the hair,
Which was mere ornament
—A European mock.

Could that be what it meant7
That high unsoftened rock
With no trees on.

[Thom Gunn {1929-2004}, 'Bone' from The Man with Night Sweats]