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.