Mean Time

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Steam

a sly, thirsty, silvery word - lay down,
opposite ends, and vanished.

Quite recently, if one of us sat up,
or stood, or stretched, naked,

a nude pose in soft pencil
behind tissue paper

appeared, rubbed itself out, slow,
with a smoky cloth.

Say a matter of months.  This hand reaching
through the steam

to touch the real thing, shockingly there,
not a ghost at all.