The Night Swimmer

I felt it on my left

I felt it on my left

With a sensation

Of heat

Heat in cold water

Heat in the bay

And when is there ever

Heat in the bay?

The bay is cold

This time of year

Not cold, even

Freezing

That’s why you swim in it

You like the cold

You like the bracing

You like the way

It comes up into your lungs

And forces you

To fight

For every breath

You like the fight

You like the reminder

The nothing should be

Taken for granted

Not even the right

To stay buoyant

Something goes by you

In the water

And your first thought

Is that it’s not a shark

You’ve been in a cage before

With blood suspended around you

As sharks snap up the chum

And you squeal behind

Your scuba mask

And feel more alive

Than you’ve felt

Since the accident

Hard to feel afraid again

Once a car goes over a bridge

Once it starts filling up

Once you realize

You’re not dead

But you will be soon

If you can’t roll down the window

And get out fast enough

Before the suction
Pulls you down

To the bottom

Something goes by you
In the water

And even if there happened

To be daylight

You’d still have a hard time

Seeing what it was

But at this hour of the night

Swimming alone

Creating circumstances

To ratchet up your own adrenaline

There’s no possibility

Of seeing what went past you

There’s a ripple

A few feet away

And the bay

Is otherwise calm

No boats, no other swimmers

The shore too far

If something was chasing you

But it doesn’t appear

That anything is

Something just wants

To let you know

It’s here

You tread water

Then you duck under

You try to open your eyes

But you’ve never been any good

At that

Breathing

You’re good at breathing

You can hold your breath

Under the surface

For at least two to three minutes

With a steady heart rate

And you’re still steady

If anything calmer

Because whatever it is

You’re ready

But the water keeps pushing you up

And every time it does

You feel something move

Right below where you were

Seconds ago

You go down again
And again

Knowing that something

On the attack

Will not give up

So easily

But nothing grabs your legs

Nothing snipes at your arms

Nothing pulls you down

You go under

And there’s nothing there

Just the leftover

Feeling

Of heat

And the sense

That you missed something

And that missing it

Would have made

Anyone else

Feel

Lucky