After The Party

This is a memory of summertime midnight bathing

The party is done,
Yet four tense bodies,
Pricked by the wind's sharp sting,
Prepare to take the plunge.

Starlight and torchlight there twinkle together,
Sparkling reflections dancing on ripples, fly out,
Casting in bank-willows, flickering shapes ever-changing.

Within the gentle stream,
Backs arch and arms reach forth
In passionate strokes,
As the bodies pass softly.

Then the final embrace:  and falling into delirium,
Floundering helplessly in a wash of ecstatic delight,
Their bowed heads filled with the evenings perfume.

The cold night is forgotten,
Tender warmth welling from within.
Grassed banks yield to light steps
And clothes cling as they walk on.

Will such a midnight kiss e'er be so sweet?
We ask as failing forms away to fleet.