XXII
                                                                                              And as he walks
                              along the river, half a mile from the Cosmos
                              or 15,000 steps if he counts the left one
                              and does the every other or the one in
                              three sometimes he does on his other river,
                              and as the sun sets and the foghorns blare
                              he watches the bodies swimming back to Brooklyn
                              for he is near the V. A. Medical Center
                              near the New York Skyport where the cormorants
                              dive for your amusement and to fill
                              their empty bellies with the oil-drenched fish
                              where, if your eyesight is good, across the river
                              against a wall and certainly in Greenpoint
                              you can see the large sign “Huxley Envelopes,”
                              which gives you so much peace, nor are there giant
                              frogs nor are there glutinous nor muscular
                              sucking eels nor for the moment, even
                              suckholes nor, for the moment are there motors
                              threshing the water, only swimmers and waders,
                              and he could swear they had on wool bathing suits
                              and men and even boys had tops and women had
                              skirts of a sort and most of the costumes were black
                              with a stripe or a little star both here and there
                              and some walked into the river for they never
                              learned to swim and some held heavy suitcases
                              over their heads as long as they were able to,
                              and they broke into song, both Jimmy Durante
                              and Fats Waller and everyone imitated
                              radio voices and I.’s dog’s heart was broken
                              for they were mayflies and they were fluttering seedpods
                              though who was a widow and who was an orphan and so on
                              it was hard to tell in the bathing suits,
                              though you could say that even wearing swimwear
                              was a privilege for there is a style in swimming
                              just as there is in dying.