Epithalamion
I.
union gives the bay its air
probes fingers in awe a second dawn
fine to eat and drink
and bodies in the surf
to marry in comfort
hold the linen down with stones
II.
had she a thought, no-
I could not lead her astray;
always her own tongue
was around her,
original, useless
desire, a white goat and a whiter goat
and grace smeared gold over the hollow
of the beach her breast:
the sailors flexing their nets
in the break of the air
painting the bay
with the cool of her arms:
no one else would find her
for hours
the mad gulls less mad
dull in sleep set on each other
and did not
move from setting
III.
become a voice
I simply want to be dead
and occupied
with her body: light
through my sides; the rigging
of a ship beats
in my ears Hold
on his lip and firm thigh
salt
to wear nothing discomfort
come settle in the smooth earth
badge of my father's land
grow silent
IV.
move stones and smaller stones
your wet foot is cadged
in bone-white
will we sleep in the earth;
wrappings come in friendly hands?
Jamie Bradley is an instructor and doctoral candidate in English at the University of Ottawa. His work appears most recently in The Puritan, the Moose and Pussy, Experiment-O.com, and in the collaborative chapbooks Dalhousie Blues (Ex-Hubris 2009) and The Visi Cue-Cue Reader (Canteen 2009). His first solo chapbook Compositions appeared in 2008 from Angel House Press.