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Kenneth C Steven

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The Swimming

I had watched her in the classroom all winter
Eyes burning that back, the long tumble of curls
Like white corn down her neck.
Now I wanted free of sums and foreign ports
Into the summer.

Will you come swimming?
She smiled and nodded, never saying a word
And the sapphire flash of her eyes
Lit me for days.

We thudded up the hill, breathless
In the blue dizziness of June.
The trees were lemon and lime, shingled
By the sudden bliss of wind.

We downed into a shudder of cool dusk
Around the silver crashing of the falls;
She looked at me and skinned her clothes
Till she was shining white -
The first hard ball of breast beginning,
A dark between her legs.

I slapped the face of the water
Gouged by lightning cold, shrieking,
Plashing my arms like windmills,
Till she held me and I touched her smile,
Was pushed under, way out of my depth.

 

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