Lost Springs, florida Poem by Francis Poole

It's a circular spring
surrounded by limestone ledges
that you can dive from
or lie down on to get warm
after you crawl out shivering.

Once you are chastened by
the arrhythmic chill of the plunge
go under and swim down
to the shallow sandy bottom
until you reach the drop off

and a submerged cypress,
its gargantuan body
draped with moss and eel grass,
one gnarled root in the shape
of a deformed foot
wedged in the cleft of a rock.

When you approach the immense trunk
rub your hand back and forth along
the muscular ridges of its back
as you would in calming
any creature hopelessly trapped,
not yet prepared for
what's to come.