Swimmer’s Sonnet

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

2017. for Kerry Kletter

Aqueous heart, I call the waves to me
and sing the hymns writ large on sandy shores.
O, ocean, tell me how to live, to be;
how do I bring myself to open doors?

For I have drowned, a million times and one
and rise again, my lungs are unfatigued.
And still I dream this life has just begun
perhaps these bones are more than I believed.

My heart upon my cheek in iron ink,
I cannot hide my hand, these eyes betray.
Must I surrender all the walls I think
to stone? — Away, away! Behold the day.

Behold the wonders of this driftwood heart,
beloved by tempests, gnarled work of art.