MICHAEL KLEIZA

there are stumps where
her legs & arms should be
& water quiescent in the blue pool
below the starting block
that she balances on
poised & pindrop still
when the starter barks,” On yer marks!”

instant gun pop punctures the air
the crowd’s mouth opens swallows
the silence & the spit of the gun
flings her forward a moment that she
has dived into a thousand times
a thousand times her parents laid troubled eyes on her
the first day she was born

she churns towards the 50-meter mark
while others knife

when they touch the wall she still crawls
but the crowd is with her feeling every tortured stroke
wanting to know her in that moment
a bit more at least until
she is done & when she hits
the wall
they do

Michael Kleiza is a poet and book reviewer. His first book of poetry is entitled A Poet on the Moon. He is a technical writer by trade and is an alumnus of the Banff School for Arts and Creativity. He has been published in various journals such as Another Chicago Magazine, FrogPond, Anthropology and Humanism, Ekphrastic Review and The Compulsive Reader.