Undertow
We left the wake wanting
the darkness, the beach and each other.
The cool blue moon cast a
surreal aura on your willing mouth.
Your breath added to
the moist godlessness
that comes pagan from the give
of the brown dune sand below,
You were frivolous, thin, and tan.
I was forty, sick of my job,
you were younger and talkative,
naked except for my shirt.
You told me you were chilled,
I covered you, caressed your thigh,
the back of your neck
tasted like salted marble.
You said you were bored.
I read you poems about lovers,
you rolled your blue bloods,
wondered at my method,
and suggested we should get back.
I realized the tide, the event,
stared at the sand rushing most
assuredly, back with the undertow.
.
Second most
It was a small group of good friends,
who had been close for years,
except she and I, we were mutual acquaintances.
Everyone was clustered around a sofa
and coffee table with wine, drinks, finger food,
recreational drugs.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
The game was to tell the most exciting thing
that happened to you in the last month.
When it was her turn,
the beautiful smile went away
she became very serious.
It was the tell-the-tell, the words were deliberate,
emotional, but not rushed.
When the breath and spittle left her mouth
they formed a visual that kept projecting
to the narrative, the faces, places,
in a spiral that stretched across the room,
like a large ribbon of animated story.
I wanted to touch it, smell it, but like the dog
chasing the semi, I knew I could be crushed.
The story came to an end, she paused,
closed her eyes, like a slinky the streamer
sucked back to her mouth and disappeared
The others went back to their Pinot and cheese.
I leaned toward her until our knees touched
and as nonchalantly as I could, asked her to tell
her second most exciting thing of late.
© Craig Kirchner
Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves the aesthetics of the paper and pen, has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. After a hiatus, he was recently published in Decadent Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Wise Owl, Chiron Review, Dark Winter, Spillwords, Fairfield Scribe, Unlikely Stories, The Main Street Rag, and several dozen others.
The Loch Raven Review 