Head-First Dive - July 5 2023

 

Head-First Dive

July 5 2023

It turned cool today.

I felt an unexpected chill

in the wishy-washy breeze

coming off the lake.

As if this decadent weather

had left me soft

effete

thin-blooded.

What a change

from just a few months ago;

last winter

hatless and short sleeved

out in blowing snow.

In the purifying cold

proud of what I'd become,

hard

tough

thick-blooded.

Season to season

whipsawed between extremes.

And year after year

declining imperceptibly

until there is only hibernation,

cranking up the heat

and sinking in

to my thrift store recliner

under heaps of shabby comforters.

So I dive in

if only to feel alive;

the shock of cold

and catch in my lungs,

the thrill of blood

rising up,

my flushed and racing heart.