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