There Only Once
[ Ben Nardolilli ]

Drinking out of the water filter, the laughter thinks it can try
to remove me from an altercation with the sunshine gliding over the pool

After their chuckling option is exhausted, hands come out
to extract me from the scalloped edges of concrete

The pacification campaign hauls this body into a gazebo
Where I endure a shadowy tete a tete staring at the chattering horde

Creaking through the afternoon and into the evening,
I emerge, savage among tiki lamps, ready to shatter the still surface again