your great body

for a.b. (again)

i'm losing myself in your body

drowning in your metaphors, your verbs

watching your maiden voyage, then

as you disappear over the horizon

breaching the waves one last time

you become whale in southern waters

your mating songs deepen your voice

cows and calves swim about you

holding fast to your radar

then it's off the screen, it's gone

only the great swollen body floats

on these frozen seas of the north

where i sit, lost to everything
but your memory

resigned to my will to preserve
the living part of you
every limb you left to us
to save us from drowning