«babey…» — Summary

Jim WehlageRomantic

babey come with me barefeet

into this nite rain into this warm moist nite barefeet barelimbed into this nite air into this crystal clean air which we swacked against the blackness and stars. we are cleaned cleanst from top to bottom un salted by the rain. come, into the form fitted air around you bared feet wetted limbs. there are thousands of drops-thousands of wetted armhairs and each single one like white street lines. the street is glistening with head lites and the streetlites are alone, moving thru the wetness feet time rain; walking. steel weightless drops splashing wet lite wet asphalt. come with me babey and walk into wetness.

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The speaker is asking someone close to them, addressed as "babey," to step outside barefoot into a warm night rain. The whole poem is built around that invitation, repeated and stretched out until it feels like a pull toward something freeing. The rain doesn't seem like an inconvenience here. It cleans everything, the air, the skin, even the two of them, who are "cleanst from top to bottom."

What the speaker feels is delight and tenderness, with a bit of urgency. The details are small and sharp: drops clinging to arm hairs, headlights shining on wet asphalt, streetlights that seem to move through the wetness. The broken lines and odd spellings give the poem a loose, breathless rhythm, almost like walking and talking at the same time. The mood is intimate, sensual and calm, a private moment of washing away the day. The last line returns to the opening plea, inviting the listener to walk "into wetness" together.

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