Bordeaux Boys - Richard Fleming

From Bordeaux sea-wall children leap
into, what must be, chilly sea.
At high tide here, water is deep,
far, far too cold for you and me
despite the July evening heat
but, nonetheless, young boys compete
for smiles from girls, respect from peers,
and never seem to feel the cold.
They laugh at us, our groundless fears:
we must seem crotchety and old.
When young, from other walls we dived,
incautiously, yet we survived.

Richard Fleming