One lifetime, half a continent away I met a girl
Sitting on a swing in the warm summer drizzle.
Duthie Park moved quietly as soup around us
Cold hot dog stands lying fast asleep.
Approaching her like a butterfly to buddleia, she smiled
Wearing her honesty like taffeta.
Her body shone through the dampness of her dress
Strong tanned legs springing from boyish hips
Swimsuit whiteness highlighting her visibly nascent breasts
Aureolae not yet confined. Swinging high,
We laughed as her dress (diaphanous, like the weather)
Flew up, exposing daisies which covered her sex.

Ice creams later, we poked fingers at huge goldfish
Letting them bite us like toothless yellow submarines,
Chased bees from gallicia roses
And wore them in our soaked hair.
Standing close, her hair smells of desire
As I clear away a damp black lock from her eyes.
We both shiver, but it isn't cold.
Her freedom scares me for a second then
Inevitably, I kiss her.
She laughs and runs, I run and catch,
She kisses, kisses, kisses me.

Later, much later (she loves me)
In a room where afternoon sun has discreetly appeared (she loves me not)
Daisy petals drop without shame (she loves me)
And the transparency of her dress becomes less clear
As it dries on the chair back.

She is young, but not so young
That she doesn't understand her freedom
Or our needs in this northern midsummer madness
Even though I ask, she will not stay longer
So dressing her small body first with daisies
Lastly with the tattered remains of a rose
We part as we came together, fleetingly.