Life Preserver

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Crisis is sometimes a quiet prayer
the breath riding a wish, the breath,
me under a log in the woods, buried
by my own fertility

If I capsize, bail me out with sponges
absorb me in slow bursts and wring
me out with enough force to stop
sadness from flowing

over nickels in a well. I'm drowning
in life and the luxury of children;
halfway to the bottom I cannot see
the sunlight

and it may be stars are out. Fatigue
fogs my compass so I do not know
up from down or day from night
and this is fine,

but I could use a vest or rope,
some muscle to haul me out
of the depths of this . . . this
wearied water.