What I Once Saw

I’m sure you’ll find it difficult
To understand what I once saw
Parading on the sun-warmed beach---
I yelled out, “Holy mackinaw!”
A wizened, white-haired gentleman
With skin the hue of walnut shells
Went sidling by in just a thong
That hung between his legs like bells.

Beside him strolled an aged crone
Whose thong, like his, was quite bereft
Of enough cloth to cover all
The parts of her that still were left.
Hand-in-hand they shuffled past me,
Oblivious, or so I thought,
To all the disbelieving stares 
And ridicule their outfits brought.

With eyes cast down to pick their way,
Their ankles splashed by gentle surf,
They ambled on to who knows where,
Content and happy on their turf.
If they came back the other way
That day, I was already gone.
And yet, that image of their trek
In my mind’s-eye still lingers on.

But that was many years ago,
And I am now all bent and worn
Like those two souls who, hands clasped tight,
Strode bravely on despite our scorn.
My skin is now of walnut hue,
And gravity has done its work.
But still, I like to walk the beach,
Although I’m sure the young folks smirk.

For now, I’m clad quite skimpily,
Compared to when I dressed so fine,
When what the others thought of me
Commanded me to toe the line.
My skin hangs loose upon my bones,
My hair is gone, my cheeks are fat,
My arms and legs are skinny now,
My belly is no longer flat.

My black speedo, if once it fit,
Rides up and down with ev’ry pace.
I’m sure it draws the ridicule
Of all I see with laughing face.
But I don’t mind, I pay no heed.
My thoughts are not of them today,
For I am walking all alone,
No hand in mine to share my way.

In memory, I still am young
And beautiful, a man full-blown,
Whose lady, hand-in-hand with him
Still walks the beach, her love my own.
And so my thoughts, they are of her,
And of that couple in the past,
And how they were so fortunate
To have each other holding fast.

I miss my lady, ‘deed I do,
But on the beach, she’s still with me---
Not old and bent, as I am now,
But young and fair and wild and free.
So, I hope you'll find it easy now
To understand this weird old man,
Parading on the sun-warmed beach
Aside my lady, while still I can.

_{© J. Bradley Burt 2023}