Bathsheba

by Barry Goldensohn

(reprinted from AGNI 34)

She is now mature in creases, at ease in shade
only, as she bathes the aging body. The light
is all in her face and falls like death on skin.
Her smile is inward. The watcher hidden in the night—
the king who eyes her from his roof, must murder
her husband first. Why does he love her? His sight
is inward too. He loves her. He’ll get her.

 

(from AGNI 34 & 56)

Barry Goldensohn is the author of three books of poems, St. Venus Eve, Uncarving the Block, and The Marrano. He teaches at Skidmore Collge. (1991)