Cruising

Remember it like this: for once

we're drifting down the stream

incredulous and free, your bare arms

caught in sunlight and your hair

made incandescent by the breeze.

No one we know would think

of coming here to watch the ripples

parting in our wake. And so we let

the perfect words escape.

You know as well as I do

nothing holds: the summer glitters briefly

then moves on; the children

waving from the bank

turn into adults when the waving's done.

That's why we shouldn't interrupt

the dream or misconstrue it.

I'm waiting on the landing-stage,

your ticket in my hand-

the destination left to chance;

our route unknown, unplanned.

It starts somewhere in the city of love

and on the river running through it.