Water Revisited

After entering my photo in The Paper Mama's photo challenge, I was reminded of a poem I wrote back in 2007 for a poetry course I took while in college. The assignment was to write a poem about one or more of the four elements: earth, air, fire or water:

Facedown in Yesterday

I am swimming and sinking,

laughing and crying,

embracing and denying.

The zodiac points to Air—

my ancestors disagree,

but Water makes sense:

my mother’s fist pound glass,

alerting the YMCA instructor.

At night, you bead on my forehead and under my arms,

soaking the bed sheets.

That summer at J & M’s in Point Pleasant,

Grandma teaches me to conquer fear

while Grandpa does

the dead man’s float

and I keep him there

although he became Earth

almost 4 years ago.

If I flow over him,

perhaps he will wake up

and I will be free of this child.