What to do with time
married friends make
the mistake of calling free?
One idea is searching
out hard things. Japan,
for instance, where a shrinking
corps of aging women dives
for abalones. I don’t yet know
what abalones are, but
I don’t want to learn
anywhere but from them.
I imagine shellfish whose language-
less tongues curl around pearls;
I imagine this while knowing this
to be unlikely. I will acquire a crop
of Japanese relevant only to salt
water and its necessities:
bucket, breath, clam, cucumber,
abalone, abalone, everything
soft and mottled that snaps
shut to the touch like
my mother’s heirloom mother-
of-pearl jewellery box.
They (the women) are free
divers. From them I will learn how not
to be afraid of the sea, or of being
in the sea alone. I will learn that one is always
in the sea alone.
These women live
a very long time.
They will not ask
me who I am or why;
they will teach me
like a child to tie
my white bonnet
my white dress I will dive
towards the salt floor I will
learn how to carry a still
living thing to the surface.