Poem "It Makes All the Difference"

“Tangles”
Original Photo © Renee Podunovich, 2023

She is lounging on a pool float
but not swimming.
no one has used that long-handled net scoop
and the dead bugs are floating
            like showgirls in leotards
fallen from their trapeze,
now suspended by a safety net of green murk.

she skims her fingers across the surface
and the algae hangs there
            like a lover’s hair,
slowly slides off and flies 
like a private jet
as she hurtles it at the wall of the courtyard. 
it splats. stays stuck to the stucco. 

no one joins her pool party. 
they smile sweetly from the sides.
check their watches. make excuses:
the kids. a meeting. forgot a suit.
I  have an extra Speedo, she offers,
the cabana boy will fetch it for you.
I’m in the weeds at work, he says,
straightening his tie nervously,
then waves a sheepish goodbye and hurries away.
She flings a clump of slimy algae 
at the back of his head
like a grenade.
she misses. oh well.

she adjusts her straw hat and sunglasses.
sips her iced tea. points her pedicured toes 
and dips them gingerly into the muck.
she prepares for a refreshing plunge 
by closing her eyes. it makes all the difference
to close her eyes.

- Renee Podunovich from the chapbook Let the Scaffolding Collapse (Finishing Line Press, 2012
First published in Caper Literary Journal, Winter 2010 (honorable mention for the Maravillosa Magical Realism contest)