I swam in ocean bluesWaves covering my tanned skinCooling the sun's angerAnd my own.I watched my chaos get takenWith the tideAnxiety sinking to the depths My mind breathed out.It's all more peaceful a little way from the shore,The shore.Where people are sick and dyingWhere the earth begs for its groans to be heardWhere whoever shouts the loudest wins.But I swam in ocean blues.I lived happily.

The first time I went swimming, I was tossed into a lake by heavy handsI felt the dirty water swarm my mouthIt pushed its way down my throat, thick and heavy and coldViolently, my arms would flail, My feet would kick,And I’d gasp for air when I broke the surfaceWith my stomach weighed down by salt and guiltLike bricks tied to my feet, Making me sink,Making my eyes sting. Glossy, blurry vision c...

A foot in, too coldbe brave, don’t waiverBoth feet in, no haste neededStiff as a statue, shiveringly coldStay at the edge, waiver again.A few steps, deeper yetA toddler learning to walkSpin around, relish the momentSwishing and swelling your bodyFurther in, don’t waiver.A splash, a flailLegs and arms fly aboutStop, try againCalmer now, no pounding heartAdrenaline ebbing, body warm.Looking back,...

swim, kick, breathe you wayto the bottomyour pockets heavyleading you downsitbuoya little up, a little downrhythm displace the water with your armsflap backwardsarms       up,    up,   upglide you downweighed down hold your breathholdlungs achelet loose little bubbles from cold lipsholdOK, nowturn out your pocketspump, kick, wing your wayto the skyby Katie Anne Jamieson

swim with me in a sea of four letter wordssplashing the shores with sailor's saltstand with me clad in barnaclesand be woven into the arithmetic of the ancient reeferode and find yourself a billion grains of sandand I too, a billion grains of sandno longer separateno longer separablecrushed together in illiterate gracebeneath an ocean of four letter words

The lady of the Sea, I have often searched the shores for her, Moonstones dangling from her ears, Pearls around her neck, Her blue and grey robe made from the colours of the waves,She is there, I know it, Only now though I realise, She won’t walk along the beach to find me, I must find her, Where my body meets her voluptuous curves, Where her rhythm moves me to the steps of her watery dance,Whe...

There is airAnd nothingnessAround meAnd inside of meBut it is everything. The breezeCarries the promiseOf what isAnd of what could beIf I just breathe. So I inhale the sweet And many possibilitiesAnd learn to suspendMyself in the nowAs I surrender And float.

   When you were ten or so do you recall the blinding sting and hush of weary gulls? Dark water muffled the world above and youbreathed your first mouthfulof salt.A heavy weight,you were  deadas debris, dead arms, dead legs,  a sun-bleached shell.Entangled, congealed, floating a mass of serpentine green, with flecks of brown and red under you went and surged up, born again hair slick, thick  wi...

It’s nighttime: she’s treading water, flailingunder the largest delta of distant singing starsShe wants no light to guide her home—a woman can want to swim alone.The cherubim come calling her name thenCondescending. Carrying blinding stars. Four faces, teeth gnashing—four wings with smoldering feathersflap violently: awakening tempests,and they cry, “It’s the tides, then!”that threaten to bury ...

To undress, and immediately getting goosebumps from the touch of the sharpen air on my skin. The first touch of my feet with the freezing water. To go from being uncomfortable to feel at ease in just an instant. To surrender all my body to the force of the water, pushing me up, holding me, surrounding me, embracing me. To never want to dry off my body again. To be a river with infinite waterfal...