To Become Water... Poem by Jessie Pengilly

Above the water,
Before I leave the air
To disappear within
This viscose body.

My skin shivers the anticipation
Of submersion …

…then exhalation and I am light
limbs freed to float
moved by more than just my mind
I ripple and flow with unseen currents
pulled and driven
spinning in this aqueous world
greens and blues
colours of a pasture to a midday sky- intertwined
here all is somehow combined
swells, flows, light, colours -
heat and warmth together merge - accepting all
being and becoming one….

…but here my body does not belong.
My lungs begin to burn.
My head lightens and is forced to return -
To a world of boundaries.

Lurching forward I block the sun.
And my shadow is rejected by the soil.
I stand and feel the ground against my feet.

A rock sticks into my heel and I bite my tongue.
A fly hits my back.

I hear voices. I scramble for my clothes.