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2023 Academy of American Poets Prize

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Swim

by Edgar Morales

for Rosalba Underwater, my lungs burn at the thought of breaking the surface.  I am reminded of when I learned to hold my breath. During your first trimester,  you would breathe in double the amount of oxygen and pump  ninety percent of it to me. My lungs learning to hold air  without the possibility of drowning. I break the surface,  force myself to stay afloat. The weight of my body  distributed across the water. I think back to lessons  regarding buoyancy. How I learned to float on my back  during your second trimester, when our heartbeat was one  shared song. My body turns in the fetal position. I hold my breath              and push off the walls of your stomach–  my legs kicking and squirming. I think back to when I learned  how to swim. When your body signaled to me that it was time to leave  at the end of your third trimester. I could no longer use your umbilical cord  like a floatie. Into the world I swam. Into a world that warns  you of the dangers of water without teaching you how to swim.  I think about how you spend your one day off from work  at Yosemite Pool. Where you taught yourself how to kick and  pull and push the water around you to stay alive. Then, threw me in the water and taught me the same.

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