One Life Saved - March 25, 2024

two kids in the middle of the lake

arms on a sinking canoe    slip and flail   

wounding the water as they cry out

dropping my fishing pole   I run

barefoot up the dock   across

the lawn and yell at the house

“Dad, Papa . . . someone’s drowning”

our motorboat roars off

the bow rears like a horse

blue smoke trailing the churning wake

a boy my age is brought

and stretched out on the lawn  

gasping and groaning   eyes closed

same place I would lay my daily catch

of perch and bullheads    some still

sucking air when I aimed my Polaroid

how could I feel what they felt?

lacking intimacy with most things

I was a child pushing a button

none of them lived

and he remains

badly out of focus