Good in the Water

We slide.
Out of the water
Out of the sun
Into the shadows,
We are full of holes
And that makes us heavy.
But
We slide.
You are better on land than I am,
More familiar with the surprising terrain,
More comfortable amid canyons
And craters.
You are adept and agile,
Leaping from rock to rock
With abandon—anything
To keep from hearing the echoes
Behind you.
You must be fast to out run them.

I am better in the water
Where outlines blur
And the patterns of light are refracted—making small
Things large
And large things inconsequential.

Somehow, despite our varying abilities,
Amphibious or terrestrial,
We agree on several things:
First, that Echoes are scary—they remind us of the
Holes we crawled away from, they tie us to the
Things we wish we never knew;
Second, Shadows and Suns are more alike than people might suspect—
Both useful for secrecy or revelation,
As long as we apply them in moderation;
And third, to be Good in the Water,
All you have to do is stop breathing.