Poem in the Manner of the 1960s [by David Lehman]

Poem in the Manner of the 1960s

Naked women are the best
You meet them in corn fields and meadows
They are naked and the moon is silver
and it is summer with a bounty of apricots and plums
and then it is autumn and you meet them in the city

You meet the naked women in cafes
at parties or bars or art openings
Sometimes they wear sunglasses
Often they are smoking a cigarette and holding a cocktail
and there is a single ice cube in that cocktail

The naked women wear their hair in beehives
They like all-purpose black dresses
They take pride in how good they smell
And even when they are wearing their sleek black dress
and clutching their chic black pocketbook
you know they are the naked women you have dreamed of
since you were fourteen years old

-- David Lehman [9/ 9 / 11]

[Virginia Quarterly Review]

Ed. note: All BAP blog posts by David Lehman are copyright c David Lehman. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Peter Fortunato]

Oh, it was a mad, mad, mad world back then. . .