Do You Remember Touching

Touching is something that people take for granted A thing of youth Age deprives you learn to live without touch Do you remember what it was like to touch silk and skin Do you remember what it was like to kiss Gentle soft skin against gentle soft skin It's a guilty remembrance as if I am perpetrating some kind of crime How dare I How dare I remember you when you may not want to be remembered Silk is the word that always comes to mind Like running my hands over water Oh God I did love water Swimming is one of those things I don't do any more To be wet when you're young it's so beautiful Your features are purified and exaggerated and extraordinary and beautiful and clean You are never more beautiful in youth than when you are wet or cold and flushed pink To be wet when you're old it's just to be seen in all of your imperfections ashen and dry even when wet Age doesn't like to swim And age is not improved by cold But I remember when I used to swim like a dolphin dipped and dives and stopping to catch breath I would float my hands on the water rest them on the velvet surface caress it and feel its definition it's otherworldly texture It's atomic form Silken and otherworldly and impossible just as you felt to touch How could anything feel so completely soft and pure and right Our world is losing its water just as I am losing my water My beautiful world is drying I'm dry I dream water and remember the books that you wanted me to read Dune In which water was so precious that even tears were saved only for those you love the most