Missy - Size 9-10

'Brown fat looks better than white fat,' she said,
that summer in Wisconsin when we took
towels and Bain de Soleil up on the roof-
basted and baked ourselves -
we looked great that summer.

My friend was plump, as we used to say about
pleasingly round girls - plump
like soft pillows, with
dimples in their pretty knees,
and maybe their elbows

Girls with curves
and possibilities
Blond and pink with China-blue eyes, or
dark and sultry, smoldering
with Mediterranean mystery
and a little flesh on their bones.

Something to hang onto,
girls of substance.

I envied them...they had
cleaveage.

Now I'm built more for comfort
than for speed
and the sun damage
is traced across my face, a map of summer afternoons
on the roof, days at the lake.

Barring the spectre
of melanoma,
I cherish every sun-soaked
rooftop hour, every orange tube of
Bain de Soleil, every day spent
at the lake.

Summer of '69
Best ever.