[Gail White]

THE EMPTY APARTMENT

Sometimes I think that people are the fingers
of God, like the blind ocean touching land
and life's a Braille that I won't understand
if I'm not touching you and we're not singers
kissing a song out of our mouths in bed.
Tonight I fumble keys in darkness by
my door and try to feel my way inside
to cook alone and watch TV; instead
I walk down California to the seething
blackness out there beyond the glowing beach
and stand a long time listening to each
heave, the ocean like the planet breathing.
It's done with raging windily and wild.
Tonight it whispers "Shush", it whispers "Child."