On a distant shore

On a Distant Shore

The night before sailing

from the world I had known

that now seems the ancient

world to me

it was a hot summer night

in the humming city

the small hours the tiny

two-room apartment of a friend

the windows wide open

above the avenue

and behind me three young women

crammed in asleep

as I stood at the window

and then I turned to the room

and in the light from the street

beheld one beautiful

bare breast of a friend’s friend

gently rising and falling

as though I were not there

already not there