rapids

Negotiating through the words
and the laughter and emotion
we exchange between us.
The river rages and twists
and drops and is fraught with
protruding and hidden rocks and land.
Riding and paddling along with you
getting soaked and splashed.
The calm water lulls are relaxing
yet they lack the roughness and
intensity of the rapids.
When the white water churns
and screams and we are grasping each
other tightly, riding for dear life
riding hard and fast, pitching and
bucking, rolling and capsizing,
diving into the depths of the hard
wet smoothness of the rushing water,
gasping for air, grasping for balance
collapsing soaked, exhausted and clinging
to what synergy we have left,
it is falling to the soft grass
by the mouth of the river
and slipping deep into sleep
and later, waking with you
tightly within my arms,
that I find most
exhilarating.