David Fekete

Lying on the raft anchored out from the beach,

Which floats upon icy-cold summer Lake Superior

I would bake in the Upper-Peninsula Michigan weak summer sun

Until the surface of my skin felt hot

Plunging into icy Lake Superior

Feeling the bracing, cold water against my heated skin

The sensual feeling, my skin become my consciousness

My consciousness, my skin

In the deliciously chilling Lake Superior water

Dove under water over all my made frigid skin and face.

I climb back up onto the raft and bake off the chill

In the summer Upper-Peninsula Michigan sun

Repeating at my leisure through the passing week-end summer afternoon

We like bright summer sun’s heat on our skin,

Basking as bare as we can in its rays,

And the general warm summer air.

Summer cools into fall, fall freezes into winter.

Who enjoys winter’s brace upon our barely exposed skin?

And yet,

Extraordinary stimulation excites sense

Like chill Lake Superior water

Or heat of the sun on bared summer’s body

Or brisk, crisp air in winter’s bite on the barely exposed face

My sensuous face embraces icy air’s welcome winter brace

As much as sensual summer’s pleasant bake on my skin

And now, among fall’s gold and russet colors, I think of coming icy air again