Looking Beyond the Imperfections
︎︎︎ Mark Hammerschick
︎ JULY 28, 2022
Rattled skin
mottled molted
that familiar scar
cradled in an ancient
inner thigh
how once those thighs
rattled the night
raining waves of wonder
bobbing
on that sturdy sloop
off Martha’s Vineyard
the sails fore-and-aft rigged
full moons everywhere
I can still remember that smell
salted sea air glinting and gloaming
off the water
your laugh cutting the night
like a rising comet
how we have known the
the eternity of the event horizon
balanced on thin gravity
galaxies red shifting
how we moved from violet
wavelengths to red
nanometers rising
plasma pulses
waves raving
radio, infrared, X-ray
and our favorite
ultraviolet ionization
breaking the chemical bonds
our atoms exploding
at the edge of the stern
my hand on the rigging
your arms clamped on me
like a chock-a-block
windward and leeward
we rode those waves
tacking our bodies
hugging the shore
like I hug you now
deep in the fathoms of night
knowing love
has no depth
mottled molted
that familiar scar
cradled in an ancient
inner thigh
how once those thighs
rattled the night
raining waves of wonder
bobbing
on that sturdy sloop
off Martha’s Vineyard
the sails fore-and-aft rigged
full moons everywhere
I can still remember that smell
salted sea air glinting and gloaming
off the water
your laugh cutting the night
like a rising comet
how we have known the
the eternity of the event horizon
balanced on thin gravity
galaxies red shifting
how we moved from violet
wavelengths to red
nanometers rising
plasma pulses
waves raving
radio, infrared, X-ray
and our favorite
ultraviolet ionization
breaking the chemical bonds
our atoms exploding
at the edge of the stern
my hand on the rigging
your arms clamped on me
like a chock-a-block
windward and leeward
we rode those waves
tacking our bodies
hugging the shore
like I hug you now
deep in the fathoms of night
knowing love
has no depth
Mark Hammerschick writes poetry and fiction. A lifelong resident of the Chicago area, Mark currently lives between the North Shore of Lake Michigan and Naples, Florida. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in Calliope, Former People Journal, Sincerely Magazine, Mignolo Arts, Blue Lake Review, Naugatuck River Review, East on Central, Grey Sparrow Journal, Griffel, Wood Cat Review, and The Rockvale Review.