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This poem is taken from PN Review 252, Volume 46 Number 4, March - April 2020.

Warm Ocean and other poems Bill Manhire
Warm Ocean

Someone says lonely let’s go for a stroll
someone says not now
someone says it was never about the money
someone says what then
someone says a few basic rules
anger desire compassion
anger desire compassion
and then there’s a great silence
in which we all go for a stroll
clifftop ocean a few swimmers far below

Old women are swimming in the ocean
there’s classical music going on
so many heads bobbing and nodding
where is my lover, where is my lover
the women cry, bobbing and nodding                  
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