We chose to share our love
when it was earliest dawn,
and it was at dawn
that we walked along the sea-shore.
Our clothes slipped from us
and fell, like wet foot-prints.
It was at such a dawn
in the cool light before sunrise
we groped through the wide waters
searching for long-forgotten memories
gathered there. It is at dawn
that the body is most at ease –
like a field outstretched, undisturbed.
It is at dawn that water-creatures
come ashore, and birds make love.
I know a woman who made
of the body’s aridity, a beautiful knife –
and went to prison.
She hated the dawn.