Antonia Clark

UNDERWATER


In the house of green rooms,
we learned to be wary, children
in a family of poor swimmers.

We studied the mermaid painted
on the wall above the tub: emerald
scales shimmering, seaweed
tangled in her dazzling hair.

We practiced swimming from room
to room, hiding in shallows, sliding
around corners like the shadows of fish.

At bedtime we begged for tales
of shipwrecks and drownings.
And later, we dreamed of oceans,
rising and falling in our element,
without needing to hold our breath.

Antonia Clark works for a medical software company in Burlington, Vermont, and is co-administrator of an online poetry forum, The Waters. Her poems have appeared in Loch Raven Review, Mannequin Envy, The Pedestal Magazine, Rattle, The 2River View, and elsewhere. She loves French food and wine, and plays French café music on a sparkly purple accordion.