“After ‘Swimmer’ by Tennis” by Alejandro Derieux Cerezo

The summer you planned for us
Tourists, flocking to lakes,
Submerged waist-deep and freezing in the wind
You were a swimmer
I always thought it natural to love you in the water
Just floating

The narrows, like the reeds,
The river, brook streams pooling
At a sandy delta
A simple floating
Waiting for you to come home
From work each day

Can’t tell you why I submerged
Drifting silt in the bed
Staring up through the surface
I tried the swimming
Always felt easier to sink
Let myself rush out into the body

Disperse

Alejandro Derieux-Cerezo is a poet from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry from The Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine.