Snorkeling the Aegean

S. R. Karfelt/The Glitter Globe

Last year someone snapped a mask over my face,

and shoved my head under the salty water.

This year I signed up for a lesson,

that combined snorkeling with scuba diving.

My knuckles got skinned,

putting on the wetsuit.

Fat leg hot yoga hell,

let us never speak of it again.

The boat whipped across the water,

tossed me inside to return in an hour.
Or so.

I think this is how I learned to swim,

too.

You can’t drown in a wetsuit they yelled,

underestimating me as people do.

So I swam to shore to fix my gear,

and landed on a nude beach.

Trying to walk in fins,

before I knew to walk backward in them.

I was overdressed,

but learned why people wear clothes.

Please.

A small earthquake hit,

not so small underwater.

I never noticed on shore,

and spent the day swimming with the fishes.

Not once peeing in the wetsuit,

lordy did I want to.

The thought of taking it off,

helped me hold it.

All. Day. Long.

Snorkeling in caves,

was dark and grassy.

Light and clear water,

is more my thing.

I think I saw,

Nemo and Dory’s love child.

And a plastic bottle,

that made me sad.

A scuba diver brought it up.

Later I took off my wetsuit,

boldly in the port,

next to the ferry and tourists.

Afterward I went to sea,

every day for a month.

Resenting time spent away,

even writing with my kula.

Searching for shipwrecks and ruins,

and salting my own.