Beer's Christmas Swim

I dove into the pool

Blue as Christmas in Bridgeview

Shallow as a junky's excuse

Wedges of garnish pineapple
Sweet as Anne Murray's smile

Danced below me

Like yellow-frocked dancers

On Don Messer's Jubilee

When I came up for air

Like the hungry whales in the bay

I swept discarded straws from my way

Just as the bay's whales sweep

Empty Coke bottles in their way

Palm trees were reflected

From the water's greasy surface

Greasy with sunscreen and

Slick bodily matter

As if an oil tanker had ruptured

And then spilled its cargo

Smoke On the Water