in the Catskills again

my wife’s bare footprints on these rocks after   
she’s been swimming where the river has dug   
a small pool by the road outside Bearsville

it looks like rain    no    it’s raining    should I   
follow these delicate marks to find her   
no    she’s just ten feet away    and she turns

back    green bathing suit    thin legs    orange and   
black towel    it stops raining    her footprints   
going away have evaporated

but of course she makes new ones heading toward   
me    there are certain moments you stay in   
even as they’re gone    like wet prints on rock   
or the way you cannot forget your dead friends

Copyright Credit: Dick Lourie, “in the Catskills again” from Ghost Radio. Copyright © 1998 by Dick Lourie. Reprinted by permission of Hanging Loose Press.
Source: Ghost Radio (Hanging Loose Press, 1998)