Marseilles

You draw a map of France
on my back and I ask you
to scratch, there, somewhere
near Avignon, perhaps where
we visited the abbey, plucked
fresh figs from the trees,
and sipped the Farigoule–
but you’ve gone on ahead
to Marseilles, incandescent
in the sun, its deep blue
irresistible waters. I am lost,
rocking in the swell, as you
touch, there and there and there,
every bright boat in the bay.

-Antonia Clark