I was standing naked in a hot springs pool at a resort in Northern California.

Around me were other naked men and women, couples and singles, leaning up against the walls, sitting on the steps or standing off to the side of the pool cuddling and leaning on each other. There was a simple sign that hung over the pool indicating that it was a silent area.

“Sh-h-h.”

Next to me was a couple whose intense conversation, even though it was soft, almost whispered, disturbed the silence. I could feel the tension coming from them and soon realized what was going on.

Maybe it was that they were naked, maybe it was that his body looked so hard and muscled in contrast to her softness, maybe it was the sheer crassness of what he was doing and that he would choose to do it in a public place while she was as vulnerable as she was.

Maybe it was because she didn’t even have a sweater to pull around her. Maybe it was that it was clear that she was heartbroken. Maybe it was all of that.

I have never forgotten it.

As a statute would
he spoke to her
His marble lips whispering in her ear
sucking her heart out.
It floated away in thin water.
Her eyelids fluttered down
she glanced at it
she didn’t need it any more.
Strangled birds escaped from her throat
her scarecrow hands flew
to either side of her face.
Anguished.
Why! Why!
His chest, naked, was a quarry.
His thighs, bare, a forest.
His decision a laurel wreath.
worn round his arrogant head.
A naked deer,
frozen in the warm water
looked into the awful
headlights of his eyes.
The earth beneath her life opened
and she fell into the groaning hole.
He remained there
in the pool.
standing naked in her tears.

~

Relephant:

How to Break Up Gracefully. 

~

Author: Carmelene Siani

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: