Adult Swim, and Kristen
has her hand around mine behind the changing rooms,
an inch deep in the mud, our toes squirming
under the gaze of Older Boys who can swim the deep end,
but cannot swim now.
-
I feel like I am swimming sometimes
when I’m not. I want to plug my nose and
close my eyes. Kristen’s mouth is wide
and she is talking for me.
-
Everything is simmering down this summer.
Even the trees are quieter this year. I am
a sponge getting heavier and heavier and
being wrung out each day.
-
But here behind the changing rooms I am Kristen,
I am wearing a two-piece and talking to the
Older Boys. I am gentle curves and smiles.
I am never wrung out.
-
I look around the corner of the changing rooms
at the bodies in the pool, I look at them
and turn back from being Kristen. Half an hour more
before they’re getting out—
-
The morning glories are blue behind the changing rooms.
They come softly out of the earth and there
are so many. We make crowns out of them every day
and never run out.
