Lia Purpura, Parasol Mushroom (detail), featured in AGNI 102
Bathsheba
She is now mature in creases, at ease in shade
only, as she bathes the aging body. The light
is all in her face and falls like death on skin.
Her smile is inward. The watcher hidden in the night—
the king who eyes her from his roof, must murder
her husband first. Why does he love her? His sight
is inward too. He loves her. He’ll get her.
Barry Goldensohn
Barry Goldensohn (1937–2023) published six poetry collections and numerous essays. His last book was a volume of poems about music, The Listener Aspires to the Condition of Music. His work appeared in The New York Review of Books, AGNI, Salmagundi, and elsewhere. Goldensohn taught at Goddard College, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Hampshire College, and Skidmore College.