Adolescent Aspirant
She races down the pier that reaches far
into the water beyond the edge of earth.
Whooping, exhilarated, she plunges
into mountain peaks -- made liquid by the lake -that shimmer when she enters, wrinkle, disappear,
displace my landlocked motherworld .
Over and over her heavenward strokes
pierce the mirrored sky, rock her face
toward ordinary heights and gorges, then
down again, eyes opening to the deep, the dark.
Exhaling, she feeds what grows within
while shorebound
in agony and awe, I
applaud the coming
of her singular
sacred
separate
self.