Swimming Lesson It is a late June lesson. The sky threatens. And so do five-year-olds. Sobs, cries, all-out wails. Fear as palpable as the muggy, noon-day heat. The instructor, like a merciless Natzi, calls you to the deep. Chin down! Arms out front! Like Superman! Don’t fight it! You edge forward, shivering, shoulders as hunched as grackles’ wings. You can do this! The water is strong and will hold you up. Glue-footed you are. Tentative. Panic painting your tiny frame. Jump! Now! Right now! I said now! You fill your lungs and lunge, breaking the water, stroking toward her as if every drag might be your last. Breathe! Pull! Kick! Breathe! She offers her hand and then shoves you toward the shallow where you emerge for her high-fives and atta boys. See, you have swum the pool’s length. Lips quivering and eyes tear-filled, you inch out of the water, cutting a glance at your mother. All you see is her pride. What you don’t detect are muffled whimpers escaping her very core. A heart flutter-kicking. How well she understands water to be strong, dear son, so strong, in fact, it can bear you up. But she knows it to grow dark and billowing and treacherous and wild. She prays for lifelines, our precious one. She pleads for buoys. Jo Taylor Jo Taylor is a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia. Her favorite genre to teach high school students was poetry, and today she dedicates more time to writing it, her major themes focused on family, place, and faith. She says she feels compelled to write, to give testimony to the past and to her heritage. She has been published in The Ekphrastic Review, in Silver Birch Press and in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal.
3 Comments
Jacquelyn smith
1/30/2020 05:56:02 pm
Gut wrenching and powerful,
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JO CARTER HARBIN
1/30/2020 11:41:04 pm
JO: YOU COMPOSE SO WELL, AND YOUR MESSAGE COMES THRU LOUD AND CLEAR. YOU HAVE A WAY OF CONVEYING THOUGHTS THAT SURPASS MOST POETIC WRITERS. CONGRATULATIONS, AND KEEP IT GOING. MISS YOU. JO CARTER HARBIN.
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Cortney Wade
2/2/2020 11:05:31 pm
Mom, you nailed it! Not just the vivid description of him, but my emotions, as well. I cry every time I read it. Thank you for capturing it so beautifully!
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May 2025
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