G) Long Soak

Tonight in the bath
you took so long.
Every muscle creaking out
like a ghost train door,
a velcro strap
peeling back.
Taking the long soak,
to purify and turpentine out
the grout of the day --

-- under your nails
and in your creases
dirt, like memories,
goes unpurged.

Flashback
momentarily
as the water bobs above eye level.
Static shaped pictures
of that tingly summer day
when we were riding mountain bikes
shifting gears
beneath the solid cloudless sky.

A painted gazebo,
and the smell of the ocean
beckoned us to the pier
where we dove in
and tried to swim.
Kissing with coral feet.
Soaking.