Love-making in Water

Seals — well, they rhyme with steel — can stand the cold.
And they can even dive and mate at once.
They hold their breath; and one knows how to fold
his vulnerable parts into the other’s.
Even virgin seals don’t need experience
to do this properly so no one smothers.

We need warm waters — and we might be coy,
but sirens can undo our modesty
striding across the liquid corduroy.
The upright aleph, the round omega
line up discreetly in the shining sea.
The Indian Ocean lifts him into her.

All this might look suspicious from the shore:
is it the rollers bobbing up and down?
The sex-police suspect but can’t be sure.
The siren saunters back with dripping haunches,
leaving her lover seemingly to drown,
past old men trying to control their paunches.