Lifeguard
By Joshua Rivkin
My father is modest. He didn't save hundreds
from drowning. Just a few dozen.
Gathered from the swell, the riptide, rough,
rough waves he carried them ashore.
Half-lit, he tells it again. The storm
against sky, the lifeguard without fear
alone in the water, the crowd
gathered to witness.
Here's what to notice:
the danger of weather, failures
of the other people to help, we never know
what happened to the boy.
This is my humble brag, my bravado,
my foolish affection
to write the same poem year after year.
In some versions I am the lifeguard.
In others I'm drowning.
Then I'm sky. Then wave.
Copyright Credit: Joshua Rivkin, "Lifeguard" from Suitor. Copyright © 2020 by Joshua Rivkin. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press.
Source: Suitor (Red Hen Press, 2020)