American Life in Poetry: Column 178

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006  
We mammals are ferociously protective of our young, and we all know
not to wander in between a sow bear and her cubs. Here Minnesota poet 
Gary Dop, without a moment's hesitation, throws himself into the
water to save a frightened child.

Father, Child, Water

I lift your body to the boat 
before you drown or choke or slip too far

beneath. I didn't think--just jumped, just did
what I did like the physics

that flung you in. My hands clutch under 
year-old arms, between your life

jacket and your bobbing frame, pushing you,
like a fountain cherub, up and out.

I'm fooled by the warmth pulsing from
the gash on my thigh, sliced wide and clean

by an errant screw on the stern.
No pain. My legs kick out blood below.

My arms strain
against our deaths to hold you up

as I lift you, crying, reaching, to the boat.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation
(www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine.
It is also supported by the Department of English at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2008 by Gary Dop.
Reprinted from "New Letters", Vol. 74, No. 3, Spring 2008, by
permission of Gary Dop. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by
The Poetry Foundation.  The introduction's author, Ted Kooser,
served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the
Library of Congress from 2004-2006.  We do not accept unsolicited
manuscripts.   ******************************