Water in My Lungs

This is water on my face and in my lungs and no ground beneath me and no hand reaches to me and this is water in my lungs.

I swam. I longed for the current and the depth and the sway and pull and strength.

This is water in my lungs. Look, from the beach.

Look, from the shore.

This is water in my lungs. This is water in my eyes. This is panic. This is gravity.

This is weight at my feet and pressure against my chest and I ask what I have done to the river and the river asks why I make it choke on my bones and why I force it to swallow my legs and my arms and my chest and my face and the river tells me I should learn how to swim.

I agree.

This is water in my lungs.

This is panic in my eyes.