My embarrassment at his nakedness,
at the pool’s edge,
and my wife, with his,
standing, watching—
this was a freedom
not given me who am
more naked,
less contained
by my own white flesh
and the ability
to take quietly
what comes to me.
The sense of myself
separate, grew
a white mirror
in the quiet water
he breaks with his hands
and feet, kicking,
pulls up to land
on the edge by the feet
of these women
who must know
that for each
man is a speech
describes him, makes
the day grow white
and sure, a quietness of water
in the mind,
lets hang, descriptive
as a risk, something
for which he cannot find
a means or time.