Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NUDE BEACH, by BOYER RICKEL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NUDE BEACH, by                    
First Line: We swam and sunned in our birthday suits
Subject(s): Nudity; Nakedness


We swam and sunned in our birthday suits
as did two dozen or so others.
It was easy to tell us newcomers-pretending
to read a book, or snooze.

I dared not oil your back or stand
far enough away to take in
the whole of your form and skin.
I looked up, to the side; said sky, sand,

in a kind of chant to hold
my desire down. I feared I'd lose
the delight of the waves, the mild breeze
that, after each swim, left us chilled.

Watching the others was my other pleasure:
the blond and well-hung crew-cut youth
walking jerkily back and forth
at the edge of the surf; the other

crew-cut fellow, who played with himself
faster and faster, a wind-up toy,
each time the walking mechanical boy
got closer; and the earth-dark half

of the bathers, no tan-lines, the veterans,
their demeanor betraying no desire
(though one had shaved his public hair).
A disinterested slathering of extra lotion

up cracks, on cocks and scrotums,
a few quick stretching exercises,
as six of them, all shapes and sizes,
prepared for a volleyball game.

Thin clouds cast a bluish tint
by late afternoon. Though we lay
or swam or walked together all day,
I'd hardly seen you, just a hint

of thigh, your back above the waves;
and when we talked, your eyes.
When the clouds lifted, brightening
our skin, the towels, the water's green, I gave

us all another itemizing look-our
various affects, our private dimensions-so
numbed by my lack of imagination
I touched your hand, then opened a book.

First Published in The Kenyon Review, Volume 22#3 (Summer/Fall 2000).
http://kenyonreview.org/roth





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