Like Water

 

  • When they are seventeen he takes her to a place
  • where the Shield surrounds, and Kelly’s Creek
  • pinches to a rivulet, tadpoles flashing through
  • sunken moss, sunshine winking on puddles like
  • an eyelid when the light is too brilliant to face.
  • They lie together in the shallows, these childhood friends,
  • unschooled in passion, drawn in by the shimmer of tiny
  • minnows and the ripe scent of slow slippery pools. Sweet
  • easy kisses, hesitant touchings, then a melting so warm,
  • so new, their laughter wells up in astonishment.
  • A fifty year old memory, rising from beneath a
  • guarded heart, unseemly in its longing, as vibrant
  • as if yesterday—me so young and careless
  • shaking love out of my hair like water.

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