TAMARA MADISON

Skinny-dipping

When autumn arrives in the desert
and the sun’s new slant lends a tinge
to the air even on a hot day, I think
of Lisa and me that afternoon
when we pierced the pool’s night-
chilled face with our nakedness:
our teenaged bodies were knife-
blades plunging into the bracing cold
that jolted our hearts and made us gasp.
We roiled the water to keep pace
with our racing hearts and then
dried ourselves on sun-warmed concrete.
Later, at night, we huddled together
in the leather easy chair and watched
The Birds through parted fingers,
thrilling to Hitchcock’s terrifying fiction.

Ghost Story

One night after she has gone I read her papers.
Her old familiar stories, and some surprises,
ring with her voice and bring her back to me.
Those last weeks she lay, eyes closed, intent
on leaving, and me, speechless at the strange
new silence. I could have held her hand,
read to her, sang, but no, I couldn’t. I’m sorry
I didn’t tell you enough how much I love you,
I tell her in my mind. Her voice then, floods
the stillness: Oh but you did! And besides,
it doesn’t matter. Her cards, her emails,
always ended with My eternal love enfolds you.
Suddenly I feel it: a pulsing, vibrating,
infrared embrace that lasts what feels
a long minute and I know she is here.

Tamara Madison is the author of the chapbooks “The Belly Remembers” (Pearl Editions) and “Along the Fault Line” (Picture Show Press), and three full-length volumes of poetry, “Wild Domestic”, “Moraine” (Pearl Editions) and “Morpheus Dips His Oar” (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions). Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, Your Daily Poem, the Writer’s Almanac, Sheila-Na-Gig, Worcester Review and many other publications. She is a swimmer and a dog lover. More about Tamara can be found at tamaramadisonpoetry.com.