Clasp your knees to your chest. Pretend
you’re an egg in the water; slowly peel
each limb away from the body. Relax.
Let the choppy waves wash over you,
the agitations caused by your starfish
children. This isn’t the first time you’ve
had to take the extra beating that might
really be meant for the absent parent.
Resist the urge to try a Muay Thai
move with fists, elbows, knees, shins.
Observe the sandy bottom, the graceful
lines of kelp; the blue-green bubbles,
prismatic, floating to the surface:
the real masters in the art of holding
the breath. When the sun’s thermometer
eventually cools, stand up slowly.
Let the water stream gently down
your hair. No matter how many times
they’ve seen this, they’ll swear you
are a monster rising from the depths.
All the more reason to steer clear
of clamshells, leave the foam alone.
Poet Luisa A. Igloria (Poetry Foundation web page, author webpage ) is the winner of the 2015 Resurgence Prize (UK), the world’s first major award for ecopoetry, selected by former UK poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, Alice Oswald, and Jo Shapcott. She is the author of What is Left of Wings, I Ask (2018 Center for the Book Arts Letterpress Chapbook Prize, selected by Natasha Trethewey); Bright as Mirrors Left in the Grass (Kudzu House Press eChapbook selection for Spring 2015), Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser (Utah State University Press, 2014 May Swenson Prize), Night Willow (Phoenicia Publishing, 2014), The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013), Juan Luna’s Revolver (2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize, University of Notre Dame Press), and nine other books. She is a member of the core faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University which she directed from 2009-2015. In 2018, she was the inaugural Glasgow Distinguished Writer in Residence at Washington and Lee University. When she isn’t writing, reading, or teaching, she cooks with her family, knits, hand-binds books, and listens to tango music.
Reminds me of last summer when I let the surf toss me around for the experience :)