Memory of a Russian Lover

You were seen
At the bay
Your back against
the shadow
Cast by the sea

Your fingers
Still clutching
The vodka bottle
I wonder if they
Remember my body
its contours
the depth, dark
pit they caressed

cause I do
I still see
Your filmy eyes
They hide
secrets
no, not women
not philandering
secrets of
your untold past

Those sheets
crumpled
By movements
bathed
In our fluids
They knew
They kept them

I know now
cause I listened
I feel it
The great ache
remnants
Of a tyranny
wounds, uncertainty

I know now
cause I've seen
How you clutched
To that vodka
bottle of spirit
Dying to be free.

-Ava Villareal
October 9, 2008