Crescent Bar Resort, July 2004
Malia Maxwell
Here I am: leaping into the water,
suspended by my godmother’s camera—
the world is as big as a hotel pool,
but I am the queen of it.
My pudgy arms spread summer afternoon
like a pair of wings. I reach, belly-first,
to meet the section of pool
my father marks between his arms—
floating from elbow to wrist on the water.
His wedding ring a beacon shining
from the harbor my body will meet.
Buried underwater, his shadow extends
from his right hand and arcs past his left,
measuring the line I must cross
to reach him.
Malia Maxwell (Kanaka Maoli) is a writer from Seattle, WA. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in No Tokens, Cirque, and elsewhere. She is an MFA candidate in Poetry at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and holds a BAH in English Literature from Stanford University.
Originally published in Moss: Volume Eight.
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