Last Cocoon

This poem was published in Farrago in 2011. I recently uncovered it going through my notes, and thought I should reproduce it here.

Last Cocoon

He had liked the look of her

Pixie features and bourbon tresses

A little young, maybe, hard to tell

Denim cut-offs folded halfway to her butt

Carrying a jumble of firewood

In her thin porcelain arms

His heart had flopped like a landed carp

She blinked at him once and turned away

She noticed him at the quarry

Diving from the granite tablet

Surfacing with a frozen shout

Scissoring his taut arms through the cool water

Hauling himself from the ether

Framed by the pandemonium

Of the looming sunset

Dripdrying like a young god

. . .

They had ignored each other at the start

He slid glances her way over the campfire

She blushed and stirred the coals

They sealed their pact with secret smiles

Daylight choked them

They mumbled ‘hi’

And scuttled onwards

Kicked themselves all day

He felt every one of his spots

She frowned into the buckled mirror

Wished she had some makeup

They both felt ugly

But this is what they saw

Her scab-kneed David

Corona of dirty gold locks

Green sapphires for eyes

Teeth not brushed in a week

His coltish Madonna

Buttermilk tanlines

Smile like a solar flare

Spider digits, dirty fingernails

. . .

Their parents went to town

The kids dug through the caravan

Found a bottle of dad’s port

Lit a fire on the beach

They merged in the darkness

Fingertips arcing at every contact

Magnetic shuffle on the sand

They orbit the flames as one

They drunkenly swim, bathers forgotten

A whole dizzy pack of quicksilver nymphs

Pale flanks flaring in the moonlight

Laughter dissolving over the dunes

They met waistdeep in the surf

Words were not needed

Saltslick they trotted back to camp

Panting through the total dark

Barefoot, they made their own path

Hands clasped in silent covenant

He fumbled with his tentflaps

Gulped down the surging nerves

Dragged in her giggling warmth

Zipped up their nylon den

They breathe and wait

Goosebump shivers

Quietly see the coming death

Of childhood’s last cocoon

Then they met

Madly unwrapped each other

They saw with their hands

She considered the jut of his shoulderblade

Discerned the graduation of his ribs

Slipstream of shared eupnea

Her skin was endlessly perfect

Perfectly marred by a perfect juncture

Slick heat blooming at his touch

Her breath a hurricane in his ear

Fusion came quickly

Discomfort briskly evolved

He beat a clumsy rhythm

Her tears were impalpable

They weaved their limbs

Owned the black nylon world

Branded their negatives together

Indelible bloodstains on the lilo

Afterwards, they clutched each other

Snoozed like piled puppies

Each the other’s newfound world

He lost himself in her curls

. . .

In the morning they were surprised

The earth had not fissured under them

The incurious magpies warbled on

As though nothing had happened

Neither knew quite what to say

Clumsy neophytes alike

Love was old, romance new

An original animal

Crouched in their guts

He told his cousin,

His cousin told everyone

They giggled and nudged

He smirked, she blushed

Summer bled its final weeks

The real world was calling

Back to the crush of school

Other people’s property

. . .

They met at their quarry

Dusk pantomiming across the water

Words had never been his forte

But he told her that he loved her

She left a slash of tears on his green shirt

Paleing fingermarks on his forearm

They rolled furrows into the sand

The stars carpeted the backlit void

They could have been falling

. . .

The cars were all packed

His dad was calling for him

One last rolling minute

To cup in their hands

She put her cheek to his chest

His chin to her scalp

Their throats full of marbles

Blinking back a waterfall

Their solstice had passed

The idea of next summer

Dangling in orbit

A lifetime away

Burn out the longing

Cellar your memories

Promise to call her,

Hold out for pain

For all of their raptures

There were no lasting marks

Just a speck of their childhood,

Crimson on a green pillowcase