the crystalline water baptizes my tired body clean

but the memories catch my mind,

battling the numbing cold in my legs

in Mogul’s free alpine air.

I see her book, covered wet and sand,

the smell of sweet sunscreen and citric lotion

sand glistening on her body

her carefree smile, as if

the michigan shores were always her

a midwest girl at the

the beach.

Thousands of miles away, over unforgiving ranges,

in the bitterest cold glacial waters

in the presence of a childhood friend

the most radiant rays and purest glacial water,

Mogul’s granitic face and pine air cannot

scrape the sticky michigan air from my skin.

Lapping against the shores of my mind,

eddying new and old memories together,

my memories steal my breath.