On the Breakwater
One summer night, when wispy moon had set,
and slothful sea lay tranquil, lapping shore,
and stars glittered, the two young women met
and walked with fingertips in touch, unsure
of where to go, and found a place to sit,
remote, and turned their backs on lights and town
to gaze, without a word, at darkness lit,
but hardly, by a thin gold line thrown down
by Venus, with no sound except the sigh
and suck of ripples, and an owl’s high shrill
screeching, at times, from hillside trees nearby.
Then one locked arms around her friend, until
she felt the fervor of her clasp could be
in rhythm with the stealthily heaving sea.
Based on the 1934 short story “Two Hanged Women”
by Henry Handel Richardson
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