Romance

I swim my laps today, slowly, slowly,

reaching my arms out & over, my fleshly oars,

the water silken on my skin, my body still able

to be a body & resting at the pool’s lip,

I watch other bodies slip through the blue,

how fast the young are

& how old they become, floating, floating,

forgetting the weight of years

while palm trees sway above us,

a little wind in the fronds, children playing

in the fountains, one is crying, one is eating

a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, I’m hungry

& wonder, has everything important happened

& what is more important than this,

like a secret adventure, like an affair I’m having

with everyone I see, their soft or washboard bellies,

their flat or rounded butts, their rippling hair

or shiny domes, their fragile ankles,

their beautiful bones, all our atoms swimming, swimming

& making us visible & I shove off the wall,

reaching my arms out, embracing the whole

magic show, with ten more laps to go.