First Dive

by Laurel Stowe

I jumped from the high dive

board into a painted blue

chlorined pool

which was so far below my

heart began to

scream that

the water was gone,

or not real,

and I would fall until

I felt a great

concrete hurt I could not imagine.

But it did end,

and I looked up through

stung eyes and water drops

still living,

wondering,

Was this the way I

left a life behind

to be born—

Did I jump as frightened

before,

so frightened that

my heart began to beat

and I was here?

Photo by Joseph Garrard