I peeled my clothes off sweaty skin,
the extra tug it took like shucking corn,
and the water opened to receive me, its dark
shimmer in starlight, and I could dive under,
the cool water sweeping my naked body,
entering every pore and the darkness
doing the same. Then I stood ankle deep
in the muddy bottom, arms stretched
over the calm surface of blackened water,
weightless, I rolled onto my back,
kicked away from shore and shadows
of trees to see the whole sky above,
the Milky Way—a thick streak.
The stars were far and close at once,
and it seemed my only purpose was to
witness them, and I did, I breathed
them into my lungs and the current’s quiet
swirl braided my hair with seaweed,
my body grew cool, then cold
as I floated for hours, maybe years,
long after my skin puckered
and then the old doubts that plagued me,
that constant tick of rumination, fell away,
my mind moving toward this vast
embrace, the eons of darkness raining down
from the heavens, rising up from the earth
and the bottom of the lake.