I am plodding around the pond
because exercise is good for me.
Even when it’s pouring with rain
I am plodding around the pond.
Today, on a bench beside the pond,
there’s a boy and girl sitting
on a bench in the rain neither talking
nor touching, together but not together.
Three times I plod around the pond –
exercise being good for me – and on
the third time when it is still raining
and the two are still sitting there
neither talking nor touching, together
but not together, my desperate heart
can bear it no longer. I stop and accost
them. Can you not hold hands? I ask.
Not a word does the girl say but her face
lights up like someone just coming alive
and she takes the boy’s hand. Then I am
skipping – no, too rash – I am plodding
around the pond, exercise being good for me.
