The pool, the crowd,
the television crew,
the judges table,
the diving board,
the toes, the shifting body
-weight, the spring,
the air, the flip, the spin,
the pool, the sky, the pool,
the wind, the sky, the utter
hairlessness carved from
sky, carved from water,
carved from plummeting,
the plummeting hips, the
elongating spine, down
like a missile, down like
a javelin, the judges
watching, the judges
watching the water,
the toes, the hair, the
chest, the face, the legs,
the — splash or lack-
there-of, each (!) splash
a mark against a
perfect score, each
(!) splash a ding against
a perfect 10, in fact
if you could just
not (!) splash at all
that would be
perfect, not even
a drop, in fact
it’s better if the
water reaches up
and pulls you into
it like a pneumatic
tube, in fact
if you would
please not
splash nor
come bac
up at
all.