maples,
silver & green,
yellow, red,
bare,
masquerading as campfire.

cedar water,
cold,
but irresistible,
astringent as canvas-filtered dawn.

shoulders & backs aching deliciously of canoes,
we moved,
mysterious as water,
into & out
of summer,

exploring ourselves along the oswego & the maurice,
the great egg harbor,
unlearning concrete & steel,
learning cold, hot,
experimenting with naked,

troubled always
by the restless images

above the shattered surface of our pool.