Sand Spinning - water

Don’t panic The wave always feels bigger underneath it Sand spinning everywhere No sky for a second Hold your breath Count slowly Your body knows what to do Even when your mind doesn’t I learned that young Floating farther than I meant to Watching the shoreline disappear Without screaming for anybody The lifeguard came out calm So I stayed calm too Funny how some people teach you How to survive without trying to Don’t panic You’ll waste all your air that way The ocean can feel fear in you Like a storm coming through the water Stay soft Kick slowly toward the light You don’t have to fight everything To make it back alive Years later in the dark water A girl jumped onto my son Panic spreads so quickly From one body to another one Everyone froze on the shoreline Watching shadows in the surf But my husband looked at me And said, “Just do it first.” So I went in wearing sandals Couldn’t see a thing below Just reached into the darkness And pulled them both back home Don’t panic That’s what saves you sometimes Not strength Not beauty Not luck Just staying inside yourself Long enough to surface again I used to body surf for hours Till my arms could barely move Warm inside the breaking wave Then crushed against the ocean floor And every time I thought This one might hold me under I’d hear something inside me say Not yet Not this one Don’t panic There’s still light above you Hold your breath Wait for it The wave will let go eventually The wave always lets go eventually