FORGIVENESS

Our ship sank near Italy. We took turns at raft and survivor: days I rode her, nights she rode me. Sharks bladed ocean beneath us. I heard mermaids singing. She said mirage but that's only in deserts. We stumbled ashore and followed the song to a cathedral, the falsetto C's bright as needles in moonlight. We pressed together in the tiny booth, confessed at length and in unison, demonstrating those sins for which there are no words. When we emerged, exhausted with forgiveness, the castrati surrounded us: giants, matted with hair, squeaking in fury and shaking their huge, futile fists.

This poem is about the failure of a relationship. It's hard to understand. Coincidentally, it too, like "Idea," was inspired by an Italian movie. There's an Antonioni movie where a couple are up on top of an old cathedral. As is customary in Antonioni movies, the couple is not getting along very well. Nuns spill out of the doors below like a stream of ink. The man rings the church bell, but there's no sound.