Antonia Clark

MARSEILLES

You draw a map of France
on my back and I ask you
to scratch, there, somewhere
near Avignon, perhaps where
we visited the abbey, plucked
fresh figs from the trees,
and sipped the Farigoule--
but you've gone on ahead
to Marseilles, incandescent
in the sun, its deep blue
irresistible waters. I am lost,
rocking in the swell, as you
touch, there and there and there,
every bright boat in the bay.

Antonia Clark is a medical writer for a medical software company in Burlington, Vermont. She has previously published short stories and essays, has taught creative writing in community college and adult education programs, and is currently co-administrator of an online poetry forum, The Waters. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Pedestal Magazine, kaleidowhirl, Rattle, and Tipton Poetry Journal.