When the raucous birds
retched in the dawn light
when the gardener
hunted snakes with a hoe
through the bourgainvillea
I awoke alone
I have never stopped
paying for a woman
Dogs asleep in the streets
of
Louren~o
Marques
cheap sunsets
sharknets and a sea
which arrived exhausted
smelling of skin
Each day on the beach
boys the color of tea
kicked a tiny black ball
with their heels-
so agile. So somber
the hallways at night
In my closet the coathangers
jangle together
like small bells
like a secret marina
Judith Berke
WE KNOW NOW
We know now the awful snarl
on the face of Gargantua
was a burn, a wound.
The truth was in his slumped shoulders,
