Away above a Harborful . . .

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Away above a harborful
  of caulkless houses 
among the charley noble chimneypots
 of a rooftop rigged with clotheslines 
  a woman pastes up sails
 upon the wind
hanging out her morning sheets
 with wooden pins
  O lovely mammal
 her nearly naked breasts 
 throw taut shadows
 when she stretches up 
to hang at last the last of her
  so white washed sins 
 but it is wetly amorous
 and winds itself about her 
 clinging to her skin
 So caught with arms 
  upraised 
 she tosses back her head
  in voiceless laughter 
  and in choiceless gesture then
  shakes out gold hair

while in the reachless seascape spaces

 between the blown white shrouds 

 stand out the bright steamers

 to kingdom come

© Gaius Valerius Catullus