Pedalo
Side by side
On a day-glo yellow pedalo
Having spent the previous twenty-four hours
Beached and gasping in the airless apartment
Recovering from overdoing
It on the first day
The intrepid explorers push away
From the rickety quay
Out into the sky-mirrored bay
She wants to circumnavigate
The rocky islet just arcing
Out of the bay’s mouth
Like badly spat gum
And the boatman said there was a beach
On the far side
But the flat splashing
Of the pedalo’s paddles
Reminds him of the hapless thrashing
Of the first victim of the shark
In that film
And the thought of slipping
Into the clear, blood-warm waves
And wading to some promised golden sands
With the lurking threat
Of a serrated grimace
Somewhere underneath
Was too much
So they bobbed, becalmed in the bay
He citing the rental time
She furious
And they paddled back, mute
To the rickety quay
Side by side, but not touching.