For Laura

While we were swimming, a butterfly

dipped past the pool.

Sunshine forced the ripples

to glow like bent halos,

and the black marker lines shivered

like brain waves in their final cogitations.

What were your thoughts as the butterfly

drifted to feed in the weeds?

Why did the one and only sea breeze

tip the treetops with false stars?

I only know that as my hands passed over

and around you, time endstopped,

and that we leaned back from our last kiss

the way one tree bends away from another for light.