A New Poem by Jack Helbig

7 Erotic Scenes

-1-

Cowrie shells, curling like toes,
your fingers, my fingers,
the color of conch,
meet in a white porcelain bowl.

-2-

A light breeze inflates the curtains,
ruffles my cotton dress,
moves the hairs on my arm.

-3-

Crossed legged,
book open on my thigh.
You face me:
young brown eyes, soft lips, smile.

-4-

The shells tick:
disks on an abacus,
pebbles in a pool.

-5-

A handful of shells.
Your fist unfolds.
Petals opening to the sun.

-6-

In your palm a dozen
wrinkled eyelids
wincing at the light.

-7-

You smile and I read aloud
this seashell prophecy:
“No one knows what lies
at the bottom of the ocean.”


Jack Helbig' articles on theater and the arts have appeared in the Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune, and the Daily Herald. He has had short stories and poetry published in Vice Versa, The Chicago Literary Review, the Grey City Journal, Rhapsoidia Literary Magazine, and Another Poetry Magazine w/Art. He has written two plays, THINKING OF HER MADE HIM THINK OF HER, first produced by the Talisman Theatre in Elgin, Illinois and KITTEN WITH A WHIP, produced at the Café Voltaire, Chicago. His new translation of Franz Lehar’s THE MERRY WIDOW premiered in August, 2005, at Light Opera Works, in Evanston, Illinois. Mr. Helbig lives in Oak Park, Illinois, with his wife and spunky daughter.