who wanted me. Someone who felt
like "home." For all the good reasons

Daniel handed me a
tisane of rose hips
and lemon grass. Pink
glass rained over the floor.

The wind in my hair,
forcing my hair to
tremble.

To be baptised in white
water was a surprise.

Daniel gripped the
white casting net in
his teeth; part of it
wrapped around his
arms, making him look
entrapped. The white
web over his black
skin: a topographic
map of his body's
terrain. His bald,
perspiring head bent
intently forward:
never a more beautiful
Neptune.


Your body, your body,
I saw you in the river,
and, oh, your body, so
near, your body so-

The voice, charming,
spontaneous. Actions
belying the words.


The power of words,
especially in the shoul-
ders. The sun, polish-
ing them. To shudder
in pain or desire would
cost him; I wept.
To long for parakeets
and a house made of
shells surprised me.

I held onto the window
frame and rode-feet

planted on the running
board, wind in my hair.


Have you met the love
of your life?

or the bad? Home, where one swims
naked in salty green seas. Eats, eats,
loves, is loved. Or, where silence dis-



Christy Sheffield Sanford, Copyright © 1996.