Picture in a Honeymoon Suite

Already I envy our children's
growth in the language of your hands,
wordless speech, their sense
imparted in the bath, or at feeding.

In Titian's Venus d'Urbino
the sleek young model has your body,
her hips a curved frame for shadow,
each breast right to fill a caress,

and it could be your hand, artful
and coy, posed on her thigh,
so I love her pale, untouchable
palm hinting at sex.

These centuries have torn the bones
from her hands, crumpled their pretty flesh,
left them cold as wintry nouns.
Your hands on me are sun, are verbs.

^

Biography

James Owens lives in La Porte, Indiana in the USA. Recent poems and essays have appeared in Wind, Nantahala, The Pedestal Magazine, and Now & Then. He was the featured poet in the summer 2002 issue of The Adirondack Review.
He edited The Sow's Ear Poetry Review from 2000-2003 and is now the publisher of Willow Glade Press.

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