Orvis Hotsprings Elegy

People are known to walk
on red stones without clothes

fragile animals
pink tipped gravity

sprawled across wooden chairs
gently gesticulating

up to their necks
in warm water

arms afloat
sideways gaze

one or two look
straight into your naked face

nude, there is no need
to exchange professional smiles

we read truth in folds and curves
crisp or blurred tattoos

everyone changing shape
toward the dead

willing to lose
everything to be seen

except me in my black bikini
you hiding between your belly and knees

we save such revelations
for the bed

2012