hopkinson_child_image1
Land Bound
by Trish Hopkinson

Fingers flutter through water
supporting torso weight
while treading feet to stay

lake-top in Missouri sun.
It’s been a good day.
A small white card displays my name

in crude print, the letters’ ends
float above the line in some spots
and jut beneath in others.

The Red Cross emblem in the corner
depicts my accomplishment.
Level two down, many more to go.

My proud gangly limbs relax
into wet thickness and my eyes
close to silver reflection.

When opened calmly, mine
meet the lidless emptiness
of a blue gill’s stare. Startled,

I escape, land bound like the air
breathing creature I must be.

PHOTO: The author in a grammar school photo.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: True story! It took me a while to get back into the lake after meeting the stare of what was probably a four-inch long blue gill.

hopkinson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Trish Hopkinson has always loved words—in fact, her mother tells everyone she was born with a pen in her hand. She has two chapbooks Emissions and Pieced Into Treetops and has been published in several anthologies and journals, including  Stirring, Chagrin River Review, and The Found Poetry Review. Hopkinson is co-founder of a local poetry group, Rock Canyon Poets. She is a project manager by profession and resides in Utah with her handsome husband and their two outstanding children. You can follow her poetry adventures at trishhopkinson.com.