The Girl Into Summer

impossible long legs
green dress and oh those eyes yes
she was my girl into summer with delicate hands and neck
too fragile for kisses
I wanted to open her like a sweet fruit and watch the air dance with her hair
but oh so shy at seventeen, how could I? and at twenty, could I?
and at twenty one she was gone, returned the next year with weary eyes
that she hid underneath her sunglasses propping her novel on her swollen belly
she smiled at me for the first time
not an inviting smile, but a knowing one, a mystery smile
I pondered the enigma behind her wry twist of lips for weeks
until she sighed and pulled her towel into autumn behind her
I was twenty eight before I walked down to the old access road again
free at last from my own version of life's mistakes
and saw her again, all over again the impossible legs
with a young girl clinging to them
no more novel or alibi, I pulled back the years again
and walked over into spring