January: Year-day 13

          
                                     
                                               
January: Year-day 13
                                                 
No, I never have quite/ learned how to swim,
although I have learned again how to float,
to stroke the length of the pool at the inn
and better than halfway back.  Would a coat
of oil improve that?  What a thing to think!
I'm not going to swim a channel.  God!
Just to get fifty yards before I sink
would be accomplishment enough.  I'll plod.
                                                  
What else can I do, if I do at all:
I definitely am no natural.
Oh well, I may not get the chance to drown
anyway.  If I don't try, I won't fall
through water; need to gasp a saving call;
but--make of my ashes a laurel crown.
                                                   
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