A Man & A Woman

He proposed to her in Pompeii, where in a cluster of silver wings they found a man and a woman boned in each other’s arms. He carried her into Rome in falling blue and white. A gypsy was stealing the coins out of the fountain. But, no matter—— they danced in the streets and kissed in the square and as they finally stumbled into the hotel at dawn he started on about the bodies. In the stomach of a shark, he said. Can you believe it: a man, woman and child all reduced to bones in the stomach of a shark. She laughed and she played with her hair and she slammed the headboard against the wall.