Perverse Pleasure

Forty-Four
- Devin Johnston

In a deck chair
under castellated clouds
Campari and tonic
bitterness
and through damp air
the gleam of a distant lake
the property of stillness
or tang of iron-heavy water
turrets and castellations
September days
with a few acquaintances
talking seldom
and then always
in dry tones
of scuffed gravel
horseradish in vinegar
the snort before a sneeze
a piquant phrase
and wake of laughter
ceruleans
on wooded slopes
along the Cuivre
appetite
without fulfillment
no more outrageous hopes
one mountain pale
beyond another