[Poem] A Nap in Venice

A Nap in Venice

The best nap I ever had

Was in Venice, on a hard bed in front of

A window the size of a vain housewife

In a silence of the morning after a party

On a day puffed white with delight

In itself, despite what I yelled, what you screamed

There I lay, there I was still

I woke up to a nun’s song of blue air into cotton

And a breeze as new as old steps over the canals

—And nothing else—

Not even the ruin of your most true words