She dives deep for pearls, shells,
anything - in warm water she is ancient
and always comes up with her knife
between her teeth, like
Geena Davis in those freezing scenes
on a waterwheel, except
she has a conch in one hand, an oyster
in the other, reaching up to you there, set
above the waist of the ocean, leaning over the deck,
smiling, whereas Geena Davis
came out of the water all guns blazing,
blew the killer away. She's diving again
and it's incompletely silent all of a sudden,
unlike the struggling scenes of twisted bubbles and blood
as Geena pulled on the ropes at her wrists;
it's still, you standing there, a pearl and conch
in your hands, waiting for her to surface,
and when she does, no knife between her teeth,
was it to tell you she loved you first?
08/09