An excerpt from “Stage 1: Cold Shock” by Caroline M. Mar (poetry ’13), published by Anomalous Press.
STAGE 1: COLD SHOCK
THREAT NO.1: LOSS OF BREATHING CONTROL
Gasping
There are an average of seven drownings per year in the lake, most due
to cold water shock, even among those who are capable swimmers. Or were
before the water folded them into itself:
a pocket of failure, a slipped
seam of darkness out of the summer
sun’s light.