I take a Detour

Collagraph print from an original papercut. #1/10. Poetry by Erica Frances George. 

Detour

I take a detour on the way home.

Step out alone into the bay

float until I can hear my heart beat. 

I swim, stretching and pulling across the swell.

In the cliff is a cave running deep and dark into the belly of the rock, receding beyond the reach of the sun.

I tread water.

Below me deep greens, clear and bright, fathomless, my footing taken away

The swell drums a bass line against hollows I cannot see and I become the expanse of the ocean and a drop within it 

My body is mine again, beautifully enough to hold and carry the gentle tide of ordinary. 

Intaglio collagraph from handcut paper