It was not long ago / before we saw you for the first time…
aquatic dancer, translucent skin and bones and skull revealing
brain and thin rope of spinal cord, miniature beating heart,
turning, stretching, waving, rolling – we never expected this
movement, your aliveness, your alien motion
still not in me as feeling though in me
here / now swimming in paradisiacal wombs of salty turquoise
I think of you swimming twice, within me and within the water,
taking your first sips and swallows
as I hold my breath, and dive.
From: Origin, Shearsman Books, 2022