Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TWO BATHS: 2, by MICHAEL WATERS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO BATHS: 2, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Light roused us from the depths of our separate longings
Last Line: Past the horizon, writing you out of existence.
Subject(s): Activity; Baths & Bathing; Loss; Love - Complaints; Memory; Exercise


Light roused us from the depths of our separate longings
and while I balanced buckets
you laced black sneakers for your morning run on the cliff,
wrapped the red ribbon of shirt
around your forehead, stretched stiff calf muscles, then ran off.
I could see you jog the beach
as I arranged notebooks, pens, on the marble table,
then begin the zigzagging
goat-path toward the crag overlooking our stone cottage,
your red rag still visible
against the rough, anaemic marble of the mountain.
Remember the undressing,
how I slipped off your Nikes, peeled each slick of cotton,
then unknotted the sweatband
and dipped that tatter into the icy water, sponge
pressed between your breasts, your legs,
the tenderness between us before the sex turned sour?—
before your six miles became
a more-than-tacit withdrawal, like sleep, or headphoned jazz,
so I'd watch you crest the hill
as I worked at the marble table, wrenching lines, syl-
lables, the diminishing
sweatband a raw wound in the distance, as I revised
draft after draft, prodding you
past the horizon, writing you out of existence.


Used with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., 260 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604,
http://www,editions.org.




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