MIDNIGHT UNDRESSED

Been burning the midnight oil again. 

Guido, this poem was, in part, inspired by your collages.

                                                - E.

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                          MIDNIGHT UNDRESSED


            he knew what the ocean wanted
           it began with the painting of

                a woman by Chardin and

                a walrus that shut its eyes

                in a darkened window

            gifts drifted down at the hour
          when the lotus eaters came alive
                and the marble statue of Venus
          slept under the dank portico
            as a train raced by in the distance

                the drowning waited in vain
             for someone to fish them out

                but the ocean reclaimed its prey
                with a yawning and all were lost

                the past couldn't be changed
            any more than we could hope
             to change the future because
            one had vanished into memory
            and the other did not exist

             or the past might be transformed
                but only by a trick on the memory

               a past forever changing
        without our knowing

             as we slowly undress midnight
           our loving fingers grope for
            what no longer lives

ERIC BASSO

        August 30, 2013