If she were on vacation in Florida as a kid
and saw a boy drowning in a pool,
wondered, in the time standing still,
“Why isn’t anyone doing anything?
Where are his parents?
How can all the adults carry on laughing,
slapping lotions, reading books?”
and in the time it takes afterwards,
had she dived in and pulled
his rag doll body off the bottom, heaved him
onto the steps with her arms around his belly,
smacked him on the back, watched him cough up water,
held him there until he looked her in the eyes,
and they climbed out, he to his family, she to hers,
clothes dripping in a hotel room,
to get what she got for making the carpet wet,
the bathroom a mess, her clothes wrecked,
would she never again dive? Make it a rule,
if she were on vacation and saw a child
drowning in a pool?
2010 post
date:
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