RED MUSE POEMS  

By David Eide  

Out of the sea we came laughing 
as the bitterness of the night 
drifted on from celebrations 
in the circled woods; 

damp, misshaped woods strung 
with lanterns, our friends 
strangers of our friends 
clinking their glasses 
and carrying useless conversations 
from one innuendo to the next. 

While breathless and intense 
we loved on the dark river bank, 
washed our bodies in the silt of it 
covered ourselves in the shame of the earth 
and the earth loved it. 

And when the sky grew crepuscular 
we washed ourselves with the dim 
daylight; 

we laughed and nearly drowned in it 
until we rested like the shadow 
and saw the stars fade as the city 
we had run from; that had chased us 
and was waiting to claim us once more. 



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