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Ah, If Not a Lover, Then a Massage Parlor Might Do


No one has touched me in years.
I pray God will let me win
a year of free massages.

If not, then I pray to ascend
like a prayer into Heaven, where
—if God is as generous

as his publicists say—
everywhere there will be
massage parlors.

Is anything more isolating
than a life untouched?
Being touched

can be like immersing
one's broken body
into healing waters.

May you, sweetheart, return
from death as if it were a sabbatical.
May we both again live

as we did when first married,
the two of us as energetic
as Vegas' dancing fountains.

Touch wasn’t rationed then.
It promised to be endless, like fields
of goldenrod that touch the horizon.

So in the evenings I turn
to romance novels, praying
by chapter’s end to be touched.

Most nights I take long hot showers, the water
stroking my chest, my buttocks
like a steamy lover.

Nicely rendered. Any massage therapist will tell touch is essential. In fact there is a medical condition in very young children called "failure to thrive" which I'm told is primarily a lack of physical touch and interaction.

You did not go overboard. Nice control.I think the older we get, sex becomes secondary to intimate physicality.

Thanks, Ken. I agree with everything you said. Touch is so essential to a healthy life, especially for those who become more isolated as they age. And of course, children!

Human touch is essential to good mental health.
You have a gift for bringing out the humanity in us, Bob.

Thanks, Frank