An hour each Wednesday is our time of love
after I check the stations along the forest creek.
We meet where beavers made a little pool
and sweet grass covers the sloping bank
canopied by willows shifting in the breeze
We met by chance when I spotted her there
at the water’s edge on a hot summer day.
Blouse pulled out and open, she was cooling
her bared breasts with a dampened scarf
humming to the burbling water’s song.
At the snap of trodden twig she saw and froze
like a startled deer choosing whether to bolt,
then slowly eased as a smile curved her mouth.
“It really does feel quite nice in this heat.
Why don’t you come down and join?”
The water chilled my nipples tight
till she warmed them with her lips.
Quickly we crushed the fragrant herbs beneath
our nakedness as our lust-charged musk
blended with the verdant forest’s breath
Her name is Alice. That’s all I know
beyond the wedding band she wore
that’s gone missing now, but for the ring
of white skin hidden from the sun,
betraying the marriage left at home.
