Swimming Pool 2020

When my baby was born

she was laid on my belly.

Her cord was too short to bring her higher.

She lifted her head

and looked around.

When they could

my placenta was brought up to me and

placed in the crook of my arm.

Then my baby came up to my breast.

Still slow and watery

she watched us

name her call her ours

stitch me up cut our cord

when it went white.

She never cried.

When I bring her in the water now

she watches silently

as we take on

a familiar weightlessness.

My hair floats out around us.

I hold her in my shadow.

I am her moon.

She watches the empty deck.

The pool vacuum circles us like a planet.

She holds her hand out

and pets the hose as it passes.