K. Lee MockThe Deepening Part (gouache and ink on watercolor paper)

 

Youth grows faint  at twilight  By light cannonfire  pimpled
boys in blue uniform begin to sing Taps  That last summer  I didn’t know
touch could be silencing crickets  could be shoving the lifeboat away
from shore without me in it  I was a girl peeling a t-shirt over my head
and the same flat armor shone back  No way to hurry to woman
A cove I’d visit on camp property  leafy muck in the shallows
had to will my way to the deepening part where I could dangle
stiff girl legs like the legs of plastic horses  Imagine the dark
cold deep lakewater  where I was held  without touching

 

Jess Feldman

 

 

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