1.

When I am closer to sharks
I am closer to God.

2.

The mayor�s wife slept
with another man

in this very hotel. It�s heaven
as a punch line

spoiled in the delivery. I remember
the year better

with wine, a pure nose of black
currant and spicy oak.

3.

I saw an orgy. It happens
all the time

here said the concierge,
his mouth an applauding

wind, a meadow with teeth,
the streets littered

with strangers
touching one another.


4.

I am a historian of hallway conversation.
I know word for word

how a knock-knock joke begins. I am
an expert at doors.


5.

A tourist, the wide-eyed version
of me, spent the day

along the outskirts of the city,
making love

in a stranger�s backyard
with a woman

whose name meant victory
in Latin, the uncut

grass a hammock of clear
light, that place people call

God, a bed housekeeping had
yet to make.


6.

Like a flag, like a child running
with one

around the lobby, I am at my most
beautiful

earning my sleep before bed, touching
myself, the body opened

like a reference book on a desk,
say a page from The Way

Things Work: this is an offshore
angler, this is how you make bearings

sing with the saltwater, this is what you do
in the big wind.



�2007 by Frank Matagrano