May I ask a favour,
one that might upset you
as it upsets me;
just for one day,
on our anniversary,
do I have to mourn you?
Would it be O.K.
that today
on the day we remember
twenty-one years together,
that you allow me to grieve for you
without breaking my heart?
Our time was brief,
I knew of you for ten minutes,
before that I had never
heard your name;
yet somehow you have stayed
Quiet now,
for its hard to keep drowning
when you keep pulling me back
up and making me
gasp,
splut
ter and whee
ze for air,
to let the extra weight of water
cough through my teeth and spray into the void
to which I escape.
Quiet now,
lay back in the blistering sun
and let the seagulls perch on the stern,
puff in the heat, pant with overwhelming exhaustion
and save the strength
for as I falter, so too do you,