i
Glance into glittering moisture
webbed in lashes unshed tears
I’d guess as yours
Known odor inhaled years later
in a brief social kiss sudden conjuncture
soap, breath, hair other embraces
diffused once, again, time’s exhilarations

ii
Is there a doctor in the house
who in his plain mindful way
cared for his patients through
pain rain and snow

who at each and every grave
side knew
what could be done
he’d done

And where have all the patients gone
who wanted (more than one)
a tending hand
across the forehead at the end

And what’s the house?
iii
They’d say she was humorless
didn’t go to the parties
giggle show white teeth

So would suspend her in
their drained
definitions

Her body had nipples, eyes
a tongue and other parts

mirthful
obscene

which rose from love quite often
hilarious into daylight
even forgetting why

iv
When I stretched out my legs beyond your wishful thinking
into the long history they were made for running
caught the train you missed sought you eye-level
at the next station You having run the whole way
to seize my face between your hands your kind
of victory or benediction then
we swerved down-tunnel
in separate cars What is it to
catch yourself mirror-twinned
in an underwater window what
about speed matching
technology and desire getting off
at the last stop: dispersed
v
You’ve got ocean through sheet glass brandy and firedog
ocean in its shaking
looks back at you with a blurred eye

Who’s that reflected
naked and sundered

reaching a hand

Go
down to the beach, walk in the wind
Pick up the washed-in shell
at your foot

Shell castle built on sand
your body and what’s your soul?

Is there a ghost-in-waiting?
time to bring that one in