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I resisted the urge to touch your foot,
all I know now of dainty—
toes like carrot nibs,
arch like a tiny bridge waiting for me
to cross,
heel caught so loosely
in the net of nylon (how
could delicate be
so caught?),
that knee-high slouched intently
at your flower-stem ankle—
a bouquet of lilies on the hill
of the garden of you.
How you could sleep for hours in this pose
is Zen mystery,
but that poised limb never twitched—
not even when your head
bobbed forward and back, forward
and back like that trick
of the glass bird
rocking
toward one quick kiss of water.
I was that glass of water,
waiting as your yellow hair
nodded closer
and closer.
Waiting to be that sip of rest,
my wrinkled white blouse
your pillow—
and for those seconds
between destinations
I was crowded with comfort;
I was paralyzed with love,
this need to touch.
Cathryn Cofell's first full-length collection, Sister Satellite, was released by Cowfeather Press in August 2013. She'll be launching the book on Friday, October 11, 7:00 p.m., with Moises Villavicencio Barras, another Cowfeather author. Cathryn's work can also be found in six pre-vious chapbooks of poetry and on Lip, a CD of her poems set to the music of Obvious Dog. For more, visit www.cathryncofell.com
