Waters Felt As Wild
by Michael Doyle

Looking to the commons differently
We sip at the waters reverently
With willows and elms along the banks
As a praying man, I stop to give thanks

No matter how much we pollute the waters
Their resilience slips back dreamily
As guilty as the sins on the policeman's blotter
We yearn for the pristine instead of the unseemly

There in the dusk with sunlight dimming
Is the memory of youth spent at the rainforest hole
When I and my friends spent many days swimming
The feeling given was restorative to my soul

The hobbies of yesterday are but today's vanity
As I think back on things of which I let go
Prepubescent idles of adolescent insanity 
Too ignorant to think of what was in the undertow

One word from the past and there I am once again
Thinking of days gone by like Camelot's lost lore
When you and I spent days swimming as friends
And I wished against hope that we might have been more

(c) July 8, 2021  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved