What is splash to the spectator
Elegant rip and lovely arc
And the hiss of bubbles rising

Is roar to the diver
Violent crash and sudden dark
The chaos of an unloving element
And the marvelous
Lyrical strain of body
Asserting its right of entry

The audience sees flight
Instead of gravity
The illusion of grace

In the tendon-taut
Wrench of the dive
All muscle and form
Bone and breath and certainty
The goal is met
Not in air

But in water
Where the diver’s mass
No longer discerns

Some divers have been lost
Have pushed deeper and deeper
Their affinity for surface
Confused
Though, given rein
Their flesh might have risen

Buoyed by its lighter resin
Which aches
To emerge

Sated and weary
Bone-drenched
In true grace
The gleaming self
May seem ungainly
After such a glorious fall

That lasted but a breath
Lovely arc and elegant rip
And the hiss of bubbles rising

© by Rae Spencer.
Used with the author’s permission.