Needle at the Bottom of the Lake

Anthony Aguero

I don’t like the water. There’s something too still
About the way it beckons you to leap into it.

Like the word still, I know little about my nature
So I strip till my skin is raw & maybe I’m bleeding.

I’ve been doing a lot of walking as opposed to leaping
& yet, despite all that stillness, a hand keeps dragging

Me in. I’m in. The water is cold & my nipples are rocks.
Because of the density, I sink. No. I don’t thrash

Because I know better than to cause a scene.
I’m breathing fine I tell the outstretched arm

Unattached to the rest of some beautiful body.
No. I’m not scared that nothing seems to fit here.

Some might say I jumped to get the needle
At the bottom of this lake. Tell them it’s untrue.

Tell them I didn’t like the water & now it’s pleasant in here:
Me amongst all this still.