PARACHUTES, MY LOVE, COULD CARRY US HIGHER

"I just said I didn’t know,
now you are holding me in your arms,
how kind."
Parachutes, my love, could carry us higher.
Around the net I am floating,
pink and pale blue fish are caught in it,
they are beautiful, but they are not good for eating.
Parachutes, my love, could carry us higher
than this mid-air in which we tremble.
Having exercised our arms in swimming,
now the suspension, you say,
is exquisite. I do not know.
There is coral below the surface, there is sand and berries
like pomegranates grow.
This wide net, I am treading water
near it. Bubbles are rising and salt
drying on my lashes, yet I am no nearer
air than water. I am closer to you
than land, and I am in a stranger ocean
than I wished.

-Barbara Guest

2023
Ariel Rubinstein

Plate from Berkeley Poetry Walk

More details can be found here Click for the item in The ultimate street signs site