Warm Scandinavian Joy

…Pahn awakens in a gray-lavender room

…

Pahn is looking at a Scandinavian estuary 

              The river flows clear      and green      riffling

               over the sandbar

                                  into an inlet      sheltered

                  from the ocean    

by a small 

                                 

    island                                

  

Pahn is swimming    in the warm

Scandinavian      joy

floating

in calm pleasure

…

Across the Nordic

summer field             Pahn sees

a woman in black underwear

bending over                                           

to pick something up in her yard

…

Aiks comes into the gray-lavender room

and talks casually to Pahn 

Pahn becomes aroused      and Aiks

accuses him of wanting

the woman in the field  

Pahn takes Aiks’ hand     and leads her

to the bed where he

pushes her onto the mattress   and holds her wrists…

…He steps away from her to find

she is the other woman    and looking down

he sees her skin surrounding     and

as he ascends

 into the wrinkled

hose

he sees white crystals

pushing out the open top…

…In the gray-lavender room 

Pahn is looking at the covers        while Aiks

is packing Pahn finds a cache

of broken    colored glass    

hidden in a fold of sheets     He takes it

to a corner of the room        where he finds also

colored beads              He imagines

it is part of someone’s project

but Aiks

knows nothing about it 

Pahn imagines                                                  

the creative possibilities

of the materials

…

They have gone down the coast

from Norway to northern California      and found

another river                            

flowing into the ocean 

Here the river is clear

and golden          

flowing over

 fine gravel

 directly                         

 into the ocean              

Pahn contemplates the interface

between    

fresh   and salty water

and comments                                    

that the river                   

    prevents anything from entering it 

Aiks says                                                                             

“It has a dog with sharp

                                        jagged jaws

that scares away intruders” 

Pahn                                                                               

looks at the water and sees only a row of rocks

delineating the limit of intrusion

and can’t quite see how

just those rocks

                   could keep out an ocean

         but is willing to consider it