In a waking dream a green ocean swells up beyond the shore;
Somewhere a megaphone announces a young child is dead.
It's not the way I like to start the day: in bed with mortality beckoning.
At noon I go swimming. A pregnant woman invites me share her lane,
"You look like you are almost due."
"Sometimes this week," she smiles. "The pressure is really on."
Back and forth we kick, stroke & cross the side of each others path.
One thousand yards later (no kidding!), I climb out the pool.
She floats slowly on her back, laps of water caressing her face.
I raise my hand in a kind of salute,
"I wish you safe passage." She smiles back.
Early morning by death, noon by life:
Cycles - I hear them coming - the oncoming, winter heart.
Stephen Vincent
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