Slow Trains Literary Journal

I Gave You My Watch

by Ward Kelley

I gave you my watch, as though time were a gift;
well, perhaps my time. Yes, you could have my
time, my full attention; and this is what you wanted.
For me, I asked for your clothes, since it was your

nakedness I desired. Is nakedness better than time?
Here, thirty years away from you, an old man, I can
still ask this question. Would I rather have those
thirty years, or would I rather possess your young

body? I can't decide. One would think the choice
would be clear, but all those years have not brought
my own body a wisdom. I think I want both: to go back
and live those years over again beside your naked body.

I am only a human, one who wants what we can't have,
and broods and broods over what he does in fact possess.

©2002 by Ward Kelley

Ward Kelley has seen more than 1300 of his poems appear in journals worldwide. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee whose publication credits include: Another Chicago Magazine, Rattle, Midstream, Zuzu's Petals, Ginger Hill, Sunstone, Spillway, Pif, Whetstone, 2River View, Melic Review, Thunder Sandwich, The Animist, Offcourse, Potpourri and Skylark. He was the recipient of the Nassau Review Poetry Award for 2001. Kelley is the author of two books: histories of souls, a poetry collection, and Divine Murder, a novel; he also has an epic poem, comedy incarnate on CD and CD ROM. See more of his work at his Web site.

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