The Lazy Shore

Life breathes in deep:
And lonely children play
All around the tireswing
One sunny summer day.

I relax because the work
is done, and watch the children
Who play as if they will never
Grow enough to have their hearts broken.

The sun goes down
In a passionate, hard summerset.
This day will fade from memory;
This sun they will soon forget.

One day I will be old and
In need of a wake.
But I will neither wake nor stir,
Sleeping all the more.

I tip my Fedora, just like that
to the woman in the water.
The lady of the lake paddles
her wood canoe along the lazy shore.

1988