You Are An Inspiration! (No, You!)

No doubt she means it as a compliment,
the 40-something swimmer, an offering
to her elder, at 80 still shapely
from daily laps as she swings toward the shower:
“You’re an inspiration!”
—which the older swimmer flings back
like a dropped towel grabbed up off the tiles,
“No you are an inspiration,” her glance grazing
the younger woman’s span of shoulder from one
powerful arm to where the other arm ends
abruptly in a round knob, fingerless.

And now in silence hangs the compliment
like a stranger’s swimsuit left behind on a hook,
which might stay there all day—who wants to wear
what isn’t hers?—still damp, so intimate.