—DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD BE SO CRUEL

Swimming

I suppose we were swimming. Or trying to. Dogpaddling is probably the way to describe it. Our clothes sat in two heaps on the shore. From there they looked like dreams that had melted. I swallowed half a lake that day. Burped some back. Nature was too good for me. Anything good was too good for me. Except you. The sun was a big toe blister. Raw. Pink going scarlet. He waited on the shore for us. Belt in hand. Like a ring master at the circus. We were young animals. Love was a word we’d heard. We swam that way. The only direction home. Then we reversed. Swam opposite. Toward the evergreens. Their limbs. Like arms that might hold us. Their needles laughing in the breeze.