Is it the transparency
and lift of air?
Is it release
as when the pebble
flings out of the slingshot
or the tethered dog
suddenly is without lead?
Or is it more like standing
on a dark beach
at midnight,
the surf loud
with its own revolution,
the horizon invisible,
the entire world the threat
of rushing water?
No one who swims
at night in the ocean
feels weightless
embracing armfuls of water
against the ballast
of the waves’ fight.
Swimming:
is it toward the shore lights
or is it out into the vast bed
of the sea’s white fires?
