The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Katsushika Hokusai, 1831)

You've got a Hokusai tattooed and

floating borderless on your back: a wave

framed gently only by the shadows

of your shoulder blades. I watch you

by our yellowing light

as you bend to retrieve a cup.

The skin at your waist folds

and your breasts fall forward,

your stomach that I've never noticed hangs—

The wave threatens to roll right off your back.

To wash down onto our cluttered floor:

your books, a calculator, plastic this and

plastic that. You stand and

turn to me,

still half exposed, walk,

your calves stretched slim,

your ankles as buttons protruding, unlevel.

Soon, our yellowing light will switch off

and in the darkness— our windows foiled against the sun

and bracing out the moon—

with your breathing deep and soft, I will

have forgotten, for with the light extinguished,

I no longer know you.

--RFRY, written Fall 2004

I'm not opening this up for exploration in the same way as the others, but it's an idea of the level of polish/density I'm going for.