DIVING BELL
			
			
			I wanted it to be me,
			
that was my one wish for Christmas.
			
			
			Instead of that though,
			
we clung to one another in the parking
			lot below the clinic,
			
knowing the unfortunate answer.
			
			
			This was December 22nd
			
and rain poured on the earth above.
			
We were far from sun dress,
			
dappled meadow, the breeze between your
			knees
			
I imagined would greet us as we
			surfaced.
			
			
			The diving bell is in place, I whisper,
			
going lower 
			
to somewhere Spanish galleons rest
			their keels on the ocean bottom
			
and new life thrives in 
			
familiar wreckage.
			
			
			
			Erick Mertz