The Nude Swim

On the southwest side of Capri / we found a little unknown grotto / where no people were and we / entered it completely / and let our bodies lose all / their loneliness. // All the fish in us / had escaped for a minute. / The real fish did not mind. / We did not disturb their personal life. / We calmly trailed over them / and under them, shedding / air bubbles, little white / balloons that drifted up / into the sun by the boat / where the Italian boatman slept / with his hat over his face. // Water so clear you could / read a book through it. / Water so bouyant you could / float on your elbow. / I lay on it as on a divan. / I lay on it just like / Matisse’s Red Odalisque. / Water was my strange flower. / One must picture a woman / without a toga or a scarf / on a couch as deep as a tomb. // The walls of that grotto / were everycolor blue and / you said, “Look! Your eyes / are seacolor. Look! Your eyes / are skycolor.” And my eyes / shut down as if they were / suddenly ashamed.