The Touch

by Bud Navero

For T.W. 

This quiet morning
in the freshening air
is quite like those they shared
behind the perfect red shutters
on Duncan

wind chimes in the pliant breeze
arouse a languid day of
dirty quips and cocktails
of dripping hips and coca butter scenes
so deliberately lost
in the shade of the traveller’s palm

regrets withheld
beyond the splashing laughs
lingered like the cat in his lap

and so
he’d sit and sip
beyond the jasmine pool
applying daubs and drips of
dreams

conniving in the know

alone together
then as
now

the words
the wit
the light

just
so

This poem won second place in Tennessee Williams’ Key West Exhibit’s Poetry Contest. Poets were invited to submit a 30-line or less poem about Tennessee Williams as a painter. Bud Navero received $100 and read his poem at a March 26 reception at the Tennessee Williams Center at 513 Truman Ave. in Key West, Florida. Read the first-place poem here.