This is a song about coming up for air.
From the deep, tossed, drawn down,
then rising to another blue,
to gulls shrieking, “Safe! Safe!”
From a murky-cool peace
I’ll hold my breath like hope
in a season of death.
Fearsome deep of dorsal fin; awesome deep of dolphinsong,
buoy me, fire-fish,
summon me, daughters of air,
to that lattice
of seaweed and sun,
twilight before dawn.
Believe in this:
the membrane splitting sea and sky,
the sanctity of reed and turtle,
the sweetness of drawing breath again.
After Psalm 130.
