Swim

Swim
     
     The Guiness Book of World Records says that
     Edie Chartier holds the record
     For the longest time spent
     Submerged in water.

     The book is wrong.
     It happened today.
     I broke that record.

     When I woke,
     I didn’t have to look for that picture of you.
     I could see it
     The smooth shades of blue
     Captured by a precise eye,
     As you floated above.
     I think it was you.
     Embedded in the mystery of your scuba suit.

     I stood in the window
     Nude
     Wanting to see the webs     
     Left by spiders
     Knitting in the darkness.
     I found a shirt and pair of shorts and an old pair
     Of shoes,
     Then dove into the sunlight,
     Half of my mind left behind
     With the memory of you.
     The other half lifted my face toward the sun,
     Searching for the most intricate web.

     I found myself drawn to the swimming pool.
     The surface completely still.
     I stood on the edge of the water,
     Slipping off my shoes.
     At once the water below me
     Grew and grew
     Until I fell into its depths,
     Cool fingers pushing up my shirt
     Tugging at my shorts.
     
You brought me here.
     The caress of your words,
     The skin of my breasts made whiter under water,
     My nipples stroked harder by currents
     That lick between my thighs,
     And bend my body impossibly into an arch of ecstasy.     

I spin as I drop,
     Arms and legs outstretched.
     I am a sea star
     Turning like a wheel.
     My clothes have turned to seaweed
     Caught carelessly by my limbs.
     I drop deeper and deeper into the sea,
     Thinking that for at least part of my life,
     When I was very small,
     My mother’s womb was like an ocean,
     My motion endless.

     What if I never breathe again,
     Floating past coral,
     The flash of light on the scales of fish,
     The vague white clouds of sharkskin.

     Why did you do this to me?
     Seizing me with the cold water of your distance,
     You, floating there,
     Somewhere above me.