How It Went (Diving)
by Theodora Goss

I went into surgery
for what they thought might be cancer
the same way I dove
into deep water
from the high dive, holding my breath,
thinking the only way up
to the air again was through
this new medium. Once I knew
it was not cancer after all, just a group
of irregular cells hanging out
in my throat, like teenagers
at the community pool,
I breathed, not with relief,
but simply to feel
that I was still somehow
capable of it, of expanding
my chest and taking in
the cold, sweet air of sheer
statistically unlikely and inexplicable
but utterly delightful
being.

(The image is The Pool No. 2 by Laura Knight.)