Bathing

On a soft shelving sandbank, to his waist in the water,

A child leaps delighted with dolphinish gasps.

His body and limbs, caressed by the liquid,

Are a world in themselves of warmth and delight.

Brightness like lightning beside him flashes

A hoop of silver circling him round.

Ducking down under, he rises and throws up

Sparks and sparkles into the air,

Till splintering sun-streaks fall down in a shower,

Himself in the midst shaking them off.

He shakes them off, and the memory, with them,

Flashing, outflashes its death in time.