13 October 2019
By Philip Kuepper
There was a military precision
about how the coach
commanded the young women,
as one, to lift their shell
above their heads, and march
forward toward the dock,
down the incline
to the pier, where they halted,
to lay their shell on the rack,
atop another shell
already in place. They lowered it,
raised it, to center it,
lowered it, again,
fitting it in place,
then stepped away.
I imagined the precision of them
shooting smoothly through the water.
(8 September 2019)