Away above a harborful 
  of caulkless houses 
among the charley noble chimneypots 
 of a rooftop rigged with clotheslines 
  a woman pastes up sails 
 upon the wind 
hanging out her morning sheets 
 with wooden pins 
  O lovely mammal 
 her nearly naked breasts 
 throw taut shadows 
 when she stretches up 
to hang at last the last of her 
  so white washed sins 
 but it is wetly amorous 
 and winds itself about her 
 clinging to her skin 
 So caught with arms 
  upraised 
 she tosses back her head 
  in voiceless laughter 
  and in choiceless gesture then 
  shakes out gold hair 
while in the reachless seascape spaces
between the blown white shrouds
stand out the bright steamers
to kingdom come





