We were 16

pattering across the long high bridge

over the Aare River

in Berne

It rained and I dared

to offer Diane from Illinois half of my umbrella

Bumbershoot we called it

don’t know why

we’d heard that somewhere

and it was a romantic notion and

a funny word for two teenagers

estimating the distance

between them

the distance even greater all these years hence

I no longer use the word bumbershoot