You are the swimmer.
The waters breathe
where a deep green 

Plant drifts and tangles
The shallow pool
Out of its torpor.

Under the surface – oh –
man child of the future
glides through ripples

Of rancor, rides the moonlit present
— Salt of seaweed, womb water,
that rings around our breasts.

Sweet lava of love, ah innocence!
White foam of the ocean mother
in each tiny bubble of salt,

Such sacred newborn pearls
emerge into the velvet brown
realm of danger, darkness

And the silent treachery of
the hippo’s swells of flesh
in his mendacious eyes.

Isis! Help! The waves are swirling
pits of tar. A surge, and the yellow
incisors thrusting just above

The ankle of the child, delicate
and poised with trust. So this
is how the sunlit future meets 

The beast of past, and hearts
hasten to hear the harrowing in
that head. I unbend and carry

You, treasure, to the mountain’s air
where falling stars surround pain
and fresh water from heaven’s

Fountain dispels the bloody flow
into the spiral of the karmic wheel.
Release us all from rage and hurt.

You are the one we’ve been waiting for.