swim buddies

he held my head underwater 

for a laugh i think 

of brown eruptions

of silt where little feet 

tripped their way out of the lake

as i panicked

for an audience of leeches

salty kid pee

up my nostrils

while dopey mosquitoes

waited sunstricken above

in the Wisconsin heat

for their turn at the tap

and the corn brained

counselors counted tags

on keyloops

in a hormonal fog

hopped up on motorboating

young love and splinters

prayer circles in the willows 

PABA vapors

or whatever makes

suboptimal laborers

make basic errors

of arithmetic