For The Waters Spared You,

Most truly honored, and truly dear

If there is worth in me or ought it appear

I cannot profess it was a gift from gods above

But from your patient teachings, O Knight of Love.

My debts amount to an impossible sum,

My greatest compassions sparse a crumb.

No kindness to this world would every repay

The love you share on a single day.

But in partial payment take this mite,

That in this poem I pledge to set a callous Star right.

Your care is a debt that I won’t let you forgive,

But as I can, I will pay it while I live.

Was was the mother, so too be shall I

You lift my body to the shore.

Before I drown or choke or slip too far

beneath. did you even think?—just jumped, just

as I did not seconds even before,

into the hungry river. my hands clutch corded arms, between your warmth

and your bobbing frame pulling me from the riverbed, up and out.

I am not drowning, but you are

still standing watchful by the shore

and I do not fear as I wade deeper,