Baptism
The murky gray water rushes against my chest,
And splashes into my awaiting face.
I kneel before the oncoming breakers:
Praying for redemption
In the power of the moment,
In the struggle to remain afloat,
In the darkness beneath the surface,
When I see how long I can hold my breath.
Each new battery leaves me gasping,
And I blink the saline out of my eyes.
I desire to be overtaken with every swell
To be swiftly swept away from the life
That I no longer understand.
And in the calm between the waves,
Cold rain melds into the warm sea.
Fusing me not only with the ocean,
But with the stormy sky it meets.
Baptizing me in the name of second chances,
Into a world greater than myself.
And everything that’s come before
Is forgotten all at once,
Rinsed off with the tide.