We do not believe that water

Will work for us. Despair is natural.

Strange movements of the ghost

In our lungs holds us shortly.

We overcome our lack of faith

Despite history’s evidence of its

Killing. We are made in the image

Of light but exist as water.

Expanding to create life (more water)

Leaving the world as vapor

Into the nowhere again. And you,

Son, timid of the oblivion, ease in

Our rented pool, and then so close

To your birth, remember before

You were born and dive

Head first without instruction.

Patrick Leonard (TX)  lives with his son, Elliot. His writing has been published in The Mid-America Poetry Review and The Adirondack Review.