Evening Wind: Drawing and Print, by Bruce Taylor

Evening Wind, by Edward Hopper (USA) 1921

Evening Wind: Drawing and Print
                         
# 
 
The window is open
and the woman is naked
at the foot of the bed
leaning towards the window
trying for the breeze.
 
The curtain is blown back
behind her over her shoulder,
the bed is rumpled from her
tossing all afternoon in the heat.
 
There is a pitcher of water
on the bedside table
and a picture of something
in a rectangular frame
centered upon the wall
directly behind her.
 
It is a landscape or
a horizon of the kind favored
by those who live in small
one-windowed rooms,
it is a still-life of sorts
and she has studied it for hours.
 
# 

She was rising to refill                        
the pitcher on the table                         
when she felt his eyes upon her                    
as a sudden gust of wind tore back               
the curtains from the window                  
and he saw she saw him staring.  
               
He turned around quickly,                         
walked on down the street,                   
looked back over his shoulder                   
just once to catch her leaning                   
just out far enough to see him go.
 
She is alone and not expecting                  
anyone or thing to change that.
She imagines him believing                        
she’s left him for another                       
but she’s left him for no one                    
and fears she may regret it.

Bruce Taylor

This poem first appeared in Pity the World: Poems New and Selected, Plain View Press, 2005.

Bruce Taylor's poetry appears in such places as Able Muse, The American Journal of Poetry, The Chicago Review, The Nation,, Poetry, Rattle, and on the Writer’s Almanac. His most recent collection is Poetry Love Sex Music Booze & Death, 2018 

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