Mark Doty
At The Gym - Poem by Mark Doty
This salt-stain spot
marks the place where men
lay down their heads,
back to the bench,
and hoist nothing
that need be lifted
but some burden they've chosen
this time: more reps,
more weight, the upward shove
of it leaving, collectively,
this sign of where we've been:
shroud-stain, negative
flashed onto the vinyl
where we push something
unyielding skyward,
gaining some power
at least over flesh,
which goads with desire,
and terrifies with frailty.
Who could say who's
added his heat to the nimbus
of our intent, here where
we make ourselves:
something difficult
lifted, pressed or curled,
Power over beauty,
power over power!
Though there's something more
tender, beneath our vanity,
our will to become objects
of desire: we sweat the mark
of our presence onto the cloth.
Here is some halo
the living made together.
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Read poems about / on: power, together, beauty, time
Mark Doty's Other Poems
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Caged Bird
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If
Rudyard Kipling
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Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
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A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Though there's something more
tender, beneath our vanity,
our will to become objects
of desire: we sweat the mark
of our presence onto the cloth.
- - I enjoyed his conversation with us about the reason we go to the gym (Report) Reply