Cruising
there’s a story I want to tell you dear
I met a woman yesterday who talked
of living on a cruise ship
her permanent floating home but someone said
you wouldn’t have friends for long
they’d come and go come and go OK
she said that would be fine
think of it timeshare friendships that expire
in weekly segments
watching the man traveling with traveling
hands as he cheats on his wife
the chef’s palm not yours calloused
opening oysters
at the shellfish buffet
tomorrow the ship’s doctor or nurse
will tend to your gastritis everyone’s fungible
inspect your facial furrows in your own cherrywood
spool mirror
anyway no one will remember how they’ve
deepened
as you sleep
in your cherrywood bed on 1200-count
percale sheets
dry your skin on Peruvian pima cotton
all the while cruising
unbruised
no one to mince your little heart
or mend it
dear are you listening
I met a woman yesterday who talked
of living on a cruise ship
her permanent floating home but someone said
you wouldn’t have friends for long
they’d come and go come and go OK
she said that would be fine
think of it timeshare friendships that expire
in weekly segments
watching the man traveling with traveling
hands as he cheats on his wife
the chef’s palm not yours calloused
opening oysters
at the shellfish buffet
tomorrow the ship’s doctor or nurse
will tend to your gastritis everyone’s fungible
inspect your facial furrows in your own cherrywood
spool mirror
anyway no one will remember how they’ve
deepened
as you sleep
in your cherrywood bed on 1200-count
percale sheets
dry your skin on Peruvian pima cotton
all the while cruising
unbruised
no one to mince your little heart
or mend it
dear are you listening
©2017 Judith Pacht
