Escaping Depth

You are the best swimmer ever:
You have three blue ribbons,
One for backstroke, two for freestyle.
Before you walked, you swam,
And water is a comforting womb.
Keep your eyes open, even when they sting.
Will your lungs to breathe liquid.
You are a selkie, sleek and green,
Your skin like moss, your hair salty seaweed.
Don’t you know you belong down here,
Where the marine world is iridescent ease,
And the silence makes tones like siren’s songs?
So swim, swim slowly, softly,
Breathe out, watch the bubbles of your breath
Break the mirror above you.

Too deep, though, and the water grows cold,
Too dark to admire your seaweed curls
Streaming behind you like a scarf in wind.
Your charming greenness will fade
Into forgetful gray as you fall
Into darkness,
A color that stretches your skin
Until you can swim no more.
So far down and you lose control of the sea,
It holds you still though you kick and thrash:
A floundering fish hooked by failing lungs.
The water presses you as if you are an olive,
Trying to coax out the oil it knows you possess.
If you are to survive, better not swim like hell,
Better not try for another ribbon.
Better stay
While your heart still beats
Like an overripe tomato.