Poem

I’m in love

Heated static over hot ceramic

Reverberated quite immaculate.

So spoke the oracle of my heart.

Semblance of some summer day

Ebb down wind hushed under

The radio by the pool by oasis by sky

One borne February. Manifest voice.

Oracle of the hills and valley Oracle of the long light

More she has to speak and too more meaningful

But this I understood above all things. When Yes I replied

I’m in love With a dying man I said

Yes I said Yes Breathe out sunning.

In love with a dying man, I said Yes

For after all these allowances

The dying man was my self

Plays below the radio poolside.

Lounging on the leaping fish. Hot-hot air and rubber

Poured two goblets on ice, a daughter of the margarita

Search out over the oasis. The oasis and the lilies

Swan floats in the lilies but remain static ceramic

I’m in love. But I must look back:

Beyond cure and all deceit

Bubbling higher in the poolside sun higher through the static

Absently circle fingertips round the melting neon ice

Lounging meditating upon always above all things

Green sun setting over the silhouette of dunes while

Down on the strip Blue eye families stroll

Blue eye music over mechanical fronds

Static from the courtyard lights

Bluelit and brilliant green.

Salt drips on aviator shades

Salt crush on soft gelato

Salt air incoming we link hands

Still a long-burning cigarette

Static in my lips. Is it, my February

Is it possible to change completely?

Now in October I sweep out the sunroom

Wishing ever had I been born to a enclave eternal

Sans celebrity of heartbreak

Sans my slow decanter

Where cabanas file sororal

Not here. My shy island estate

Boywatching in a warm buzz.

Under sound they tend the lawn

Drop another ice cube in mezcal and lilikoi

Raise to remembrance nod thanklessly.

The radio changes dying I remain.

Yes for who could ever

For who could ever, I began to say,

Chlorine in my eyes Not weeping

Only remembering Only that

Nothing hardening this solar heart

For in fact I was never so happy

For who could ever be so happy

I’m in love said some summer day.

I’m in love

And O how the waves wash in

Over the lawn and the ornament fountain How the waves wash in

Over our crystal tumblers sun brows and bleached literature

Over and over rolling Arms outstretched Over pool and oasis

Over and over the ocean forever. My love

I have done everything I can

O Oracle of my Heart ! In sunset I embrace you



Saoirse Bertram (b. 1995) is an Irish-American painter-poet; the world is the canvas; wine’s the pigment. Tiocfaidh a lá.