The Physical Review, By PATRICIA BEHR WHITTON

There’s a cold doctrine somewhere held

or just underneath the girls

who open up their legs

while travelling at night

pretty heavenly pretty tough

just visiting after dark this time they say

is this a place

like the bushes

to love in

until it’s steaming up

like clover motors

those heart fingers

that fundamentally decide

where we are narrow

and we finally cry

From “The Physical Review” (Lynx House Press: $7.95; 36 pp.). Patricia Behr Whitton was born and raised on the coast of Maine, and has spent the last 25 years in Los Angeles. She teaches poetry and creative writing in the Los Angeles public schools. This is her first book of poetry. 1991 by Patricia Behr Whitton. Reprinted by permission of the author.