You get into the water, of course, you

cannot stand on the bank flailing

your hands, you jump right in.

Head first, if you are adventurous.

I was pushed in the pool as a child,

came up sputtering but learned to swim

Life is like that swimming pool

where I have been diving

again and again, sometimes struggling

to stay afloat, your voice egging me on

there are no options, I hear you say,

keep moving, its either sink or swim.

I have my dead to swim with me

I have those whose voices are lost

I have the benthos, the smell of chlorine

I have worries and the taste of loss

And I have my limbs that carry me

Across the channels I have to swim.