High and Bright and Fine and Ice

When the motorboat man asked me to love him I whispered precipice the word for the no-more-boyfriend feeling because precipice contains ice(practically twice) because I wanted teetering— What? he said Yes His ears from the engines—so hard of hearing—his hands always so hot Mid our first winter—I’d clung so long to the dock he had to crowbar my fingers off Each digit cracked so cleanly Would you say they break like icicles? I asked sweetly I knew I was nothing! But if I could sustain one song— I is, I is, I is I is I is I could be:ice Sex on the bathroom’s cold marble counter was best I whispered statuette,monument What? he, sculpting my legs, said Yes The child? I named her Cecily It sounded like iced lily For pure, I said pristine At the ocean, I said brine Isle for vacation; for flowers,edelweiss But when I said (only of late, late!)I choose ice Brittle pearls broke behind my syllables Did he hear me? Again, twice, thrice: For my love we would need to live in a great pyramid We would need to sleep beneath the continental shelf with Antarctic crust blanketing us The only driveway to any kind of house is an iceberg-ridden Northwest Passage When I whispered universe you were to translate it as one bright line one bright rime