Want Ad
For Rachel

Barry W. North

Single and attractive redhead
Feisty but loyal,
five foot two inches,
one hundred and ten pounds,
who knows that still water runs deep,
but has lost her breath
diving down for sunken treasure,
always coming up empty handed,
breaking the surface
gasping for air,
seeks sensitive but mature male,
any color, for long term relationship.
Must be hard to plumb
and dangerous enough to make a woman feel safe,
with a hard shell and a soft center
and scars to match his soul –
maybe a
concealed gunshot wound
from the early days,
which,
when I touch it in bed,
brings the smell of cordite into the room,
or, perhaps,                                                                                                                                              
a long nasty reminder
of a near death experience
snaking across his cheek,
which brush burns my skin,
like a rope,
every time we make love –
and which caused him,
just that one time,
to call for the priest
instead of the police
and, somehow,
miraculously,          
brought him to this ad 
and then to me,
determined not to miss
even one of the
finite number of dawns
assigned to him.


 
First published in slightly different form in The Dos Passos Review