A Hundred Lovers by Richie Hofmann

Author:Richie Hofmann [Hofmann, Richie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

The Arab Baths

We removed our clothes and clung

to rough towels. There were decorative holes,

small and shapely planets

in a manageable cosmos,

through which artificial light rained down.

In the shower, touching oil to my hair,

I tried to imagine the lover as a mirror of the self,

but I was distracted by the tessellated wall of bats—

unlike us, each body cut

and polished to precisely the same shape

in a Moorish pattern.

We moved between the baths

like men moving through the stages of life.

First, suspended like babies

in the warm water, in need of one another.

Then into heat, where candles flickered on a shelf

and mint tea filled a tiny flute of glass rimmed in silver.

Standing up, you were the glistening Tree of Knowledge,

until hot mist fell against my eyes,

obscuring everything.

When we plunged into the colder waters,

we could not feel the constituent parts

of our bodies anymore,

as if death were freedom from desire.

In the steam room, on a warm marble table,

I was pre-existent, but then

the time-bound fragrances came: the air filled

with lavender, red amber, and flower of pomegranate.

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