Echo

Lying on my left side, body bared Waiting for the cold creamed sensor Feeling my heart beneath the hair and flesh I smelt the perfume of the girl, The warmth, the softness of her arm across my chest And like an excited adolescent thought She had her breast pressed against my back. I giggled inside, fantasizing The girl taking a fancy To my broad, hairy, muscled chest.

I smiled at myself, my silliness, my innocence Happy that even the imagination Of the touch of a young body could rouse me.

In her soft voice she asked me after my health About my BP, cholesterol, and the pains All the while I was thinking how nice it would be To press my nose against the back of her beautiful neck And breathe her in, deep.

'Nothing much wrong here', she said 'But take care, don't let it worsen, take the medicines'.

My heart was okay for the time being I could hear it pumping blood That old tireless machine Beating on, for its fifty fifth year. I could imagine it, or if I turned around See it in the screen, my heart, my little heart Thickening walls, weakening muscles Beating on, on and on.

Echo, echoes of the past Echoes of the heartbeats, of heartbreaks, Echoes of youth, of love...

In the air-conditioned intimacy We were together, silent Except for the loud thuds of my heart The churning, the sloshing around of my blood.

Her arm resting lightly on my chest I looked at her graceful fingers, a glimpse- Before she moved her hand away.

I could fall in love with All the women in the world.