Measuring the Days

My father dives in and swims off across the bay,
tries to swim all the way to the other side,
swims past slag islands of mucky-drift and mangrove
crowded with birds that don’t notice him. 
If he makes it to the other shore he will walk home, barefoot
and dripping. This is his weekend routine, 
his way of staying present. But of course we miss him,
cutting the grass or walking through the neighborhood,
talking to acquaintances or glancing at the sky.
Even the minnows swim through him now
as he slowly dissolves into the current. And we remember him
like hair and teeth, like skin—if we remember him 
at all. He swims as he always did, steady 
and relaxed, reaching forward and pulling, kicking hard.

Michael Hettich | Mudlark No. 40 (2010)
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