johnny two swims

aside from the notable wonder
of being present to natural phenomena
in watery milieux  near where I live
given adequate testimony on quite another blog
it appeals to me to be a bit subjective
to state in whatever terms require clarity
the perspective of another
as if to ask:
and how was it for you?


there are no arguments with summers' ample beauty
first on a gratuitous day in earliest july
then on another bright gracious day in late july
lazy summer days of lazy distraction
amid the buzzing whisping whispering singing sounds
and creampuff clouds
all these and the pleasure of pure water
an offering upon which it would be most impolite
to cast any scorn


thus I appeal to my memory
my penchant for bewildering possibilities
call me naïve call me impetuous
call me reckless even
I don't care
it is only to say that I felt no hesitancy whatsoever
even shouldering the significant physical effort to
attain to the sweet privacy of natural exploration
after which we both noted some sweat
and  threw ourselves shamelessly into a splashy cool lake
not once but twice this summer now soon past
with a most beautiful woman
and would do it again in a heartbeat
for it is for me to be with a beautiful woman now and again
the rarity of which does much to cause internal wonder
if not outright confusion
and I the least of all pilgrims would be vain to ignore
the delight so proffered there


so yes there were loons
and I having dallied and trod water near her
near the one who daringly calls me friend
I having floated there in such near proximity
so as to cause the wildness of my blood to surge
my breath to increase my whole being to rise in
a gladdening quiet and subtle frenzy of  intimacy
known only so rarely by anyone let alone me
and yes I was there close with my arms linked
around her waist and I clung there like I belonged there
as we espied the loons
who indeed wandered close to catch a glimpse of
my powerful good fortune and her curious wide eyes
there I could see the ruby eye of the female
who was most curious and there only 8 ft away
the nervous bird swam in relaxed circles turning
this way and that seeming as much in disbelief as was I
of the most physically wonderful moment
I have known in a long long time
being as it was all I could do to keep from bursting
they swam away as if to say
we're not the looney ones


and we floated there she and I
arm to leg to arm to leg
my ears receiving the words of her childlike wonder
like the kisses of deep delirium
my very fingertips attuned to the softness of
her inner thigh




I could speak of her initial stance of challenge
her initial gesture of shunning
her face that appealed to my deepest sense
saying let us take care
of her perception of the sorrow and helplessness in my face
of her easy glide to welcome me close
of her smiling kiss of her deep embrace
as we trod the water with legs and breath
enlocked were we in what I may only know as bliss
any pretense to the art of floating
an excuse for our shared spiritual daring


the full closeness of her being and my memory of it
is still a source of drastic disturbance
attuning me once again to the intense complexity
of physical attraction spiritual attraction
for I have known nothing in recent years
quite so exhilarating
quite so exalting
quite so real


but I can remember a yet more recent swim
to the hidden lake so described on yet another blog
where after some negotiating through weeds and shallow water
we emerged in our canoe into a perfectly private and secure
watery place where bogs had drifted around giving life
to cattails and an infinite number of other wet grasses and  flowers
and making homes for insects and birds
the water quiet black and pure as snowmelt
here again I can only recall the ease of our being together
the impossibility of my resisting the natural shape of her
swimsuited body and my personal ease of allowing myself
to go there to float as if I were an appendage or an odd growth
on an otherwise perfect body
to float underneath her my arms clinging ever so gingerly
to the form of her corporeal hospitality
the surges of bliss making me drunk with desire to be
nowhere else other than where I was
to be oblivious of everything else the world over
to simply be with someone in the kind grip of love
to laugh and swim around and cling to one another
with all the ready passion of natural possibilities
her intellectual scientific perspective only barely shrouding
the purely visceral and somewhat swollen tendency of
my inescapable propensity for her and only her intimate connection




my eyes were transfixed upon her body her every move
my mind tied into her mind like two strings of a slipknot
even to watch the muscles of her back
while she paddled and mused upon dragon flies
serving to render me nearly paralyzed with so much immediate wonder


all in all this made for a successful summer
an answer to a deep unworded prayer
which she of course has acknowledged and honored


and while a certain satisfaction comes forth with the
successful relatively clean and innocent foray
into shared watery worlds of summer wonder
there is no doubt in my tendons and muscles
in my nerves and the very cells of my brain
that I will await yet another outing
another opportunity to be close
another time when time itself loses its weight
suspended for a time
like two bodies treading water lovingly close
in the washing swishing splash of  summer water


I can think of other places we might swim
perhaps some other day




















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