chagall backdrop

At Palisades Park, the salt water pool,
as a little kid, I strayed too far,
into deep waters, over my head,
I began to drown.

Underwater was a beautiful turquoise,
golden with afternoon sun,
I could feel my lungs begin to burst,
I was helpless to emerge,
get above water.

Yet I still caught sight of him,
there in the world
on the other side of the diffraction,
a fun-house version of himself
in the wavy lines,
trotting along the pool’s edge,
approaching.

Then he was there underwater with me,
a torpedo coming,
black hair, floating tendrils,
blue eyes wide open
soaking up the saline,
bright, shiny,
he – surrounded by bubbles,
a latino aquaman.

I broke the surface in his grip,
a tight hug to last forever,
sound and life all about us.

The amusement park’s
closed for many years now.

I gave him wet kisses,
and reveled in the rough sandpaper of his cheek against mine,
until I fell asleep in his arms on the bus-ride home to Port Authority,
I kept saying: you saved me Dad, you saved me!

© Carlos Chagall, 2013