The Swimmer
Dim gives to bright its beauty
and brilliance cloys where flaws have fled.
Stars trapped in a clear blue sky
beg
for darkness.
This man is knit
of flaw and merit:
the sweat stains and the reckless courage,
the whining and the forlorn hope,
the drowning and the
dancing.
L'enfant perdu,
he carries the ludicrous
and the heroic
as though they were light,
instead of the awful
weight
that keeps him on earth.