broken down is what i am
my arms feeling thick and useless
the muscles cramped into heavyness
vaguely complaining at me
we went to michigan
i thought it was to be a short day trip
drive up play some dodge.ball in a tennis court
maybe eat some lunch
and head back
but there were 20 of us up there
and just before it started to rain
Ann, our host, Chris' mother
asked if we were still planning to have a bonfire
out on the beach
we'd already gone swimming twice
we didnt have the natural resistance
to that clear clean water
sand empty and stretching for miles
edged by dunes and treed hills
we dove in pants and shirts and all
cell phones and watched forgotten
realized and laughed over later
when the rain started
and the wind screaming across the lake to us
matt and i had already dug the fire pit
and laid in the start of the bonfire
but left it unlit
so we raced back to the beach
from amidst the dodgeball game
number eight or so that one was
and shielded and struggled
until a flame jumped up
we kept that bonfire going
through a torrential downpour
built a wind break around it
leaned in close
one side of our bodies drenching in the rain
the other side steaming as the water heated off our clothes
the waves picked up
crashing like the ocean
and into the water we went again
surfing into shore
swimming madly back out
we stayed there on the beach
well into the morning
the rain stopped
and stars came out
so we stripped down a second time
and let the waves crash through us
as we looked up at the milky way
trying to wrest constelations names
from minds too long blinded by city lights
going from one moment
swimming in rain so hard
it stung the skin
trying to stay under the water
as much as possible
scared that it might start to hail
to floating
belly up to so many stars
they lit the tops of the waves with their light
we ended up in singing
leaning into eachother
in the wind that had picked up again
clutching mulled cider for warmth
as we slowly found sleep crepping onto us
we left
banked down and burried the fire
- it was still burning in the morning
when we went back to retrieve lost towels and socks -
the floors of the house
were scattered with out bodies
wrapped up and draped with blankets
too exhausted to do more
they say we can come back
in the winter
to play in the snow
i will have to take care
to avoid the lure of the beach
and the icy water
that will still im sure tempt me
i will stay near to the bonfires we build then
