Pond Reflections

I'm de-boned, on my back, sun-dazed, green water slipping under ribs. I circle a mandala of light behind my eyes. Pals slip through rings of sparkling sunshine. Pale limbs dive through slowly spinning water while time sloshes back and forth. A skinny black girl, her torso submerged, long neck holding her head up like a swimming Anhinga. A chubby white boy gulping the sky as he doggy-paddles around me. My body feels tugged by cosmic sluice gates. I could tell the girl how wonderful she is but my skull is an open hatch. I could befriend the boy for life, but we inhabit rival schools in a ferocious town, and my skull is an open hatch, For years they were reflections in my eye, now my mind struggles to float there - it sinks too deep in a far distant pond.