BESIDE THE SEA

                    by Thomas Dooley 

we faced each other
over the green towel

on the cement floor
in the boathouse where he said this

is docking and pulled
his foreskin forward and slipped it over

the head of mine joining us
as dusk entered like the tide

our skins lit
by the wood stove’s tight red light in the half dark

and with his hand he crossed
back and forth the isthmus where

our bodies made passage
and his people

became my people his god
now my god.​

​Thomas Dooley's debut collection, Trespass, was selected by the National Poetry Series. He is the artistic director of Emotive Fruition, an organization dedicated to changing the way artists and audiences engage with poetry.