WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.190 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.190 --> 00:00:05.670 align:middle line:84%
I have another poem about
amphibians of a different sort.

00:00:05.670 --> 00:00:08.160 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem in which
two scuba divers are

00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:12.780 align:middle line:84%
making love underwater at about
100 feet among the Bahamian

00:00:12.780 --> 00:00:14.790 align:middle line:90%
reefs.

00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:17.340 align:middle line:84%
People frequently have
technical questions about this.

00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:21.510 align:middle line:84%
You have to save those
for later, if you would.

00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:23.280 align:middle line:84%
This is called "To
Find a Private Place."

00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.220 align:middle line:90%


00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:29.250 align:middle line:84%
"He took her one day
under the blue horizon,

00:00:29.250 --> 00:00:33.060 align:middle line:84%
where long sea fingers
parted like beads, hitched

00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:37.710 align:middle line:84%
in the doorway of an opium den,
and canyons maze the deep reef

00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:42.120 align:middle line:84%
with hollows, cul-de-sacs,
and narrow boudoirs,

00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:46.260 align:middle line:84%
and had to ask twice before
she understood his stroking

00:00:46.260 --> 00:00:50.070 align:middle line:84%
her arm with a marine feather,
slobbery as aloe pulp,

00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:54.690 align:middle line:84%
was wooing, or saw the octopus
in his swimsuit stretch one

00:00:54.690 --> 00:00:58.170 align:middle line:84%
tentacle and ripple
its silky bag.

00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:01.140 align:middle line:84%
While bubbles rose
like globs of mercury,

00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:05.190 align:middle line:84%
they made love mask to
mask, floating with oceans

00:01:05.190 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:90%
of air between them.

00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:10.560 align:middle line:84%
She, his sea geisha,
in an orange kimono

00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:13.440 align:middle line:84%
of belts and vests,
her lacquered hair

00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:17.610 align:middle line:84%
waving, as indigo hamlets
tattooed the vista,

00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:20.040 align:middle line:84%
and sunlight cut
through the water,

00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:24.000 align:middle line:84%
twisting its knives
into corridors of light.

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.340 align:middle line:84%
His sandy hair and sea blue
eyes, his kelp-thin waist,

00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:32.400 align:middle line:84%
and chest ribbed
wider than a sandbar,

00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:36.450 align:middle line:84%
where muscles domed
clear and taut as shells,

00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:41.790 align:middle line:84%
freckled calories, flat brawny
scallops the color of dawn.

00:01:41.790 --> 00:01:44.670 align:middle line:84%
His sea-battered hands
gripping her thighs

00:01:44.670 --> 00:01:48.690 align:middle line:84%
like tawny starfish and drawing
her close as a pirate vessel

00:01:48.690 --> 00:01:49.920 align:middle line:90%
to let her board.

00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:52.830 align:middle line:90%
Who was this she loved?

00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:55.950 align:middle line:84%
Overhead, sponges
sweating raw color,

00:01:55.950 --> 00:02:01.800 align:middle line:84%
jutted from a coral arch, clown
wrasses hovered like fireworks.

00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:06.060 align:middle line:84%
And somewhere an abalone
opened its silver wings.

00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.150 align:middle line:84%
Part of a lusty dream
under aspic, her hips

00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:11.730 align:middle line:90%
rolled like a Spanish galleon.

00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:15.000 align:middle line:84%
Her eyes swam and
chest began to heave,

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 align:middle line:90%
gasps melted on the tide.

00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.970 align:middle line:84%
Knowing she would soon be
breathless as her tank,

00:02:20.970 --> 00:02:23.730 align:middle line:84%
he pumped his brine
deep within her,

00:02:23.730 --> 00:02:26.460 align:middle line:84%
letting seawater drive
it through petals

00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:29.880 align:middle line:84%
delicate as anemone
veils to the dark purpose

00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:31.890 align:middle line:90%
of a conch-shaped womb.

00:02:31.890 --> 00:02:35.880 align:middle line:84%
An ear to her loins would
have heard the sea roar.

00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:39.360 align:middle line:84%
When panting ebbed
and he signaled OK,

00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.540 align:middle line:84%
as lovers have asked, land
or water-bound since time

00:02:42.540 --> 00:02:48.300 align:middle line:84%
heaved ho, he led her to safety,
shallower realms, heading back

00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:52.230 align:middle line:84%
toward the boat's even keel,
though ocean still petted her,

00:02:52.230 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:84%
cell by cell, murmuring
along her legs and neck,

00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:00.480 align:middle line:84%
caressing her with
pale, endless arms.

00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:04.050 align:middle line:84%
Later, she thought often
of that blue boudoir,

00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:08.220 align:middle line:84%
pillow soft and filled
with cascading light, where

00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:12.330 align:middle line:84%
together they'd made a bell that
dumbly clang beneath the waves

00:03:12.330 --> 00:03:15.360 align:middle line:84%
and minutes lurched
like mountain goats.

00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.380 align:middle line:84%
She could still see the
quilted mosaics that were fish

00:03:19.380 --> 00:03:23.610 align:middle line:84%
twitching spangles overhead,
still feel the ocean

00:03:23.610 --> 00:03:27.810 align:middle line:84%
inside and out, turning
her evolution around.

00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:30.540 align:middle line:84%
She thought of it
miles and fathoms away,

00:03:30.540 --> 00:03:35.160 align:middle line:84%
often at odd moments,
watching the minnow snowflakes

00:03:35.160 --> 00:03:39.360 align:middle line:84%
dip against the window
frame, holding a sponge idly

00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.240 align:middle line:84%
under tap gush,
sinking her teeth

00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.010 align:middle line:84%
into the cleft of a
voluptuous peach."

00:03:46.010 --> 00:03:47.344 align:middle line:90%