Swimming Dreams In 1921

For Matisse

In the dream
she asks the water
you move through me so easy?
She feels it filling her.

It is hope on her face.
He will return like a thunderstorm
only to say
I think I should go now.
A water whirlpool
dances her angel fish in a circle,
here we go round.

The tenderness of her face
should be enough to make him stay.
In the world beyond her green hair,
waves crash.

In the vision,
she is a mermaid
teaching him to breathe beneath,
how not to sink.

He asks
you move through me so easy?
She stares past the aquarium
she was outside of
just yesterday.

          BRIDGETTE HAHN