Suspended Belief

Swimming beneath the swinging bridge

so much is Ozark green-the water's surface,

our necks, my skin beneath your silver.

Face to face we bob, our feet softly kicking

each other. It's nothing to untie a string. To

let

fabric rise and float. Who could see? Everyone

is working but us. We have to make a choice:

Move to the riparian zone, do this under dense

cover, wrapped in smartweed, poison ivy.

Or brave smooth bank, laid out like a brash snake

heating itself over polished stone. I keep treading

in possibility and this is why I'm with you: you pull me

by the wrist, through the water, out of options.

Vehicles begin to rattle above us, freeing rough

chert between the steel cables and rotting beams.

I collect the fallen rocks in the concave of my back.

Eyes shut, I could be anywhere; we could be anything.

They could be diamonds. This could be dancing.