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294 the widows’ handbook Fortune is severe and coy with us Jacqueline Lapidus No desire in me before I saw you scanning the horizon for your errant sailboat unaccustomed boldness as the tide receded suddenly aware of shoulders like bronze sculpture conversation resonant in the lower register turned my flushed face toward you my good ear smile a flashing beacon in the twilight stretched my tanned legs sucked in my stomach feeling the pulse in my throat flutter all my denial reduced to moisture If today I do not touch your body enclose myself tonight in a dark study drift into sleep after solitary pleasure imagining you hard and sweet against me Author’s Note: The title of this poem and the lines in italics are from The Book of the Hanging Gardens by the German lyric symbolist Stefan George (868–9). George’s involvements were mostly homoerotic, but these poems were written to a friend’s wife. ...

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