Fellow Passengers - By Denise Levertov

A handsome fullgrown child, he seems,
In his well-chosen suit and wedding ring,
hair not too long or too short, taking
a business trip, surely one of his first -

listening entrhalled to the not-much-older
bearded man in the window seat,
a returned mercenary, bragging of Africa:
bronzed, blondish, imperial pirate
halfaudible, thrillingly, under the jet's monotonous
subdued growling.

The baby businessman, naif, laughs, excitement
springing from him in little splashes - his aura
fragmented - at a whiff of
soiled romance. It is something morbid
that flutters his dark thick lashes, gestures
with such well-cared-for hands,

hands his young wife
must want to bite, when they fumble,
innocent and impatient 
at her tense thighs.

May 1976