After the long limping spring
comes this clear June day
with its sun and its blue and
its outdoor pool. I slip into cool water
and instantly the gimpy foot turns to fin
and my legs move like nimble legs again.
The pool bottom sparkles and glitters
with noon beaming down in white
fractalled light, and I’m lissome
and lithe and slick and alive
with the pure sparkling yes of it,
drawing warm air into my chest
in huge lungfulls. For a moment,
I do not think in terms of damaged
or whole, I do not think of
this morning’s brokenness,
I do not think at all—
I am kick and stroke and pull
and sun-spangled shine, wild
in love with the dazzle,
the buoyant world that rises
in us, sometimes when
we least believe it can.