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Sonia Greenfield

Element: Water

In Latin, it’s a cella natatoria,
              sultry room of pools where
chlorine is a needle in the nose, 
              this room where my son has 
seen months of lessons and still 
              swims like a wounded bear, 
where he performs his uncoordinated 
              non-drowning so unlike 
the pale dowagers tucked into 
              the casings of their suits, 
because when they enter the water, 
             then cut through the eye-
watering blue, they are all named 
             Grace, all residents of a realm 
where they barely ripple the surface 
            of their lanes. It is easy to read 
the natal, the emergence from 
            immersion, the becoming
from a mother in the naming 
            of this space. It is uneasy 
to see how this element can unmake 
            a birth. In St. Albans a search 
is called off, divers un-slicked 
            from wetsuits hung to dry 
in a station, a man-made pond 
          cordoned off, a missing boy 
found. In this natatorium, I wheedle 
           every Saturday as goggles 
imprint their ovals around the eyes 
          of a boy who dives down
then crowns his way back into air, 
          back into the arms of his mother,
who towels dry his hair, who is 
          more fortunate than another.

S. Erin Batiste
Sonia Greenfield is the author of two full-length collections of poetry. Letdown, released in March, was selected for the 2020 Marie Alexander Series and published by White Pine Press. Her collection, Boy With a Halo at the Farmer's Market, won the 2014 Codhill Poetry Prize and was published in 2015. Her chapbook, American Parable, won the 2017 Autumn House Press/Coal Hill Review chapbook prize. Her work has appeared in a variety of places, including in the 2018 and 2010 Best American Poetry, Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Los Angeles Review, Massachusetts Review, and Willow Springs. She lives with her husband, son, and two rescue dogs in Minneapolis where she teaches at Normandale College and edits the Rise Up Review.
Art: Public Domain
  
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