saved from drowning #2

peaches &   apricots drag    
along      the riverbed 
The Southern Sun shines in diamondlikeness

racing up the race bank         we
crossed      the bridge to 
Thompson's Quarters

silk vellum          skinny as sticks 
hunched-backed   little boys 
spines dotted like the scutes 
of a     stegosaurus 

channel catfish and    brim biting 
cicadas sing the woods electric song 
a single      stolen cigarette 
shifts  hand  to  hand  to  hand 

holding on to another's shirt      across 
jagged rocks    set smooth 
by thousands of summers 
just like ours 

baking on our backs 
on the sand bar     ripple marks    from our feet in the brook 

rope swing at the indian bathtub 
the older  boys tried to tell us 
that it used to be a       noose 
but we knew better    cos it made us     weightless as wrens 

crickets fill up       the sunset 
through red maple      and water oak
where the cramps caught me 
swimming from       the sandbar 

and joshua swam me to jacob
    
saved by           their hands and
into the ones         praying over us 
we all      went home 
to our         mamas 
that night