ARCADIAN Poem by Norbert Hummelt

how strange to leave you behind on a bench in the shade
but I am hot. how strange that I am now going unclothed
into the havel where it's not allowed and I don't care

if people see me, from a boat .. the water is so warm,
will go nowhere, has no current; water lilies are winding
around my loins. I'm swimming. so strange, the way

the summer stands still as though time had stopped and would
not carry on and only the breeze of my motion lets me sense
that it's passing. when will the storm finally break? it's been

forecast for days. the sky is still cloudless. the water is running.
strange to be able to swim, my body feels weightless and
my blood so warm, will go nowhere, is aware only of the flow

of the current. if lightning were to strike now it should hit me.
how strange to leave you behind when I am so happy here in this
moment. you are probably still lying on your bench in the shade.

and each of us dreaming and drifting away.