in our little ship
we crossed the Equator
and so Neptune and his retinue
swarmed aboard
like pirates hungry for
treasure and wild melee
but in the process not
forgetting our initiation
baptism by salt and water and
much sea greens
which left us (when they left us)
feeling
as naked as seals, dolphins,
sharks, porpoises
but as we swam together,
as streamlined in
sudden synchrony
