Poem: Watermarked
I want to go in the hot tub tonight
Because it is the middle of winter
(The night between December and January)
And I know that when I get out of the water
I will own cold and wind and starlight,
As I did, once before.
One on a night on the edge of summer
When you and I
Had gone down to the water
And sand still scraped raw between my abraded thighs.
All the water in the world
Had taken up residence in our long, tangled hair
And we filled the narrow bed
With shaking, sunburned limbs
Until called out of the sheets, crisp-rough-chill
And into all the aching glory
Of a night I cannot now remember
Save the chill of my bones, the hint of blue in your lips.
And all the things that went unspoken between us,
All the things that always went unspoken, and always would
That leave me yearning after that sore and shaking chill
Which was all I understood.
Because it is the middle of winter
(The night between December and January)
And I know that when I get out of the water
I will own cold and wind and starlight,
As I did, once before.
One on a night on the edge of summer
When you and I
Had gone down to the water
And sand still scraped raw between my abraded thighs.
All the water in the world
Had taken up residence in our long, tangled hair
And we filled the narrow bed
With shaking, sunburned limbs
Until called out of the sheets, crisp-rough-chill
And into all the aching glory
Of a night I cannot now remember
Save the chill of my bones, the hint of blue in your lips.
And all the things that went unspoken between us,
All the things that always went unspoken, and always would
That leave me yearning after that sore and shaking chill
Which was all I understood.