How did you meet your wife?

Swimming the English Channel,

struggling to make it to Calais,

I swam into Laura halfway across.

My body oiled for warmth,

black rubber cap on my head,

eyes hidden behind goggles,

I was exhausted, ready to drown,

when I saw her coming toward me,

bobbing up and down between waves,

effortlessly doing a breaststroke,

headed for Dover. Treading water,

I asked in French if she spoke English,

and she said, “Yes, I’m an American.”

I said, “Hey, me too,” then asked her out for coffee.

Copyright Credit: Richard Jones, "How Did You Meet Your Wife?" from The Blessing: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2000 by Richard Jones. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.