the drive along sagtikos parkway
to sunken meadow
learning to swim
the way the light filtered through the trees
that flickering sunlight through the leaves
and we were going to the beach
I still get that feeling from time to time,
that time of the morning
that time of the year
when the light is just right
and it hits your eyes a certain way.
and you feel something different, something new.
the long way this time, because
sunken meadow was further away than
jones beach
but for some reason, we chose to go this way today.
and we got there and played in the sand
and splashed in the water
and the old man swam lengths between the
lifeguard’s flags
mom would swim too, for a while
and then she sat in a beach chair under an umbrella
looking beautiful, and admiring her husband no doubt
and feeling feelings only mothers know while watching her children play
and our whole family there, it was something, I’ll tell you.
and after a while he came in to us
he lowered himself into the warm
calm, shallow water of the sound
we were standing waist deep
on coarse, wet sand, rocks and seashells
pretty clear today.
and he crawled up to us, only his head above water
and it was like he was one of us.
and he told me to climb onto his back.
I climbed up onto his back,
all rough and coarse
like an old sea turtle
and it was warm, August, I guess
and the Sound was salty that time of year,
more bouyant
and he began to swim out,
the breast stroke
and I rode his back like riding an old dragon.
and he told me to do what he was doing,
I did.
and slowly, he began to lower himself into the water,
and the next thing you know, I was doing the breast stroke out there in Long Island Sound.
at least that’s the way I remember it.
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