I have wandered half-
Empty streets before
Like a patient etherized beneath a sheet before.
Women come and go;
Michelangelo
They discuss, but I just need to pee.
Do I dare disturb
The whole universe
With decisions and revisions that I might reverse?
Spend the afternoons
Counting coffee spoons
Then decide that I’d like to take tea?
And should I comb my hair forward?
And do I dare eat a peach?
I should have been ragged pincers
That scut across the silt beyond this beach.
I have doffed my socks
On this beach before,
I have wondered if I dare to eat a peach before,
Heard the mermaids sing
Each to each before—
But I don’t think that they’ll sing to me.