DROWNING STROKE

A kind of stroke you never have to learn,
not like the back stroke or the butterfly,
it comes installed already like the long
lazy crawl you practiced in the womb

before you could even breathe. Your feet go down,
your head goes up, like someone standing
up in water, or trying to, like someone
who's forgotten everything they've ever known

about how to float, how to keep on living
in this world. You stick your arms up, waving
about for help while your legs keep kicking
themselves straight down. Your head comes up again,

once or twice, for a final breath. You turn
streamlined as a fish, a stone, as something
grabs you from below and, like a midwife,
tugs you, gasping, backwards out of life.